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The cruise of the "Falcon"
Edward Frederick Knight
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THE
CRUISE OF THE "FALCON."
A VOYAGE TO SOUTH AMERICA IN A
io-TON YACHT.
BY
E. F. KNIGHT,
BARRISTER-AT-LAW.
WITH MAPS AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. I.
SonlTon :
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, i88, FLEET STREET.
1884.
[All rights reserved, ]
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LONDON :
PXINTBD BY GILBERT AND RIVINCTON, LIMITED,
ST. JOHN'S SQUARE.
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PREFACE.
In these two volumes I have told the story of the
voyage, extending over a period of twenty months,
of my yawl the Falcon (eighteen tons register, thirty
tons RTM), in South American and West Indian
waters.
We left Southampton on the 20th of August, 1880,
the crew being composed of four amateurs, three of
whom were barristers, and a cabin-boy.
The narrative includes the description of a five
moilths* cruise in the yacht up the Rivers Parana and
Paraguay, and of a ride across the Pampas to
Tucuman,
The number of miles travelled over by land and
sea was roughly 22,000.
THE AUTHOR.
A 2
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CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The Results of a Fish Dinner at Greenwich i
CHAPTER II.
Voyage to Madeira 12
CHAPTER III.
The Cape Verde Islands 28
CHAPTER IV.
Bahia 44
CHAPTER V.
Rio de Janeiro 69
CHAPTER VI.
Maldonado Bay 91
CHAPTER VII.
Montevideo and Buenos Ayres. .... 109
CHAPTER VIII.
The Rio de la Plata 126
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vi Contents.
CHAPTER IX.
PAGB
The Pampas . 143
CHAPTER X.
We commence a Long Ride 161
CHAPTER XL
The Rio Segundo 180
CHAPTER XIL
Cordoba 193
CHAPTER XIIL
On the Tropilla Track to Potosi . . .211
CHAPTER XIV.
The Montes of Santiago 232
CHAPTER XV.
The Rio Saladillo and the Salt-Desert . . 249
CHAPTER XVI.
SantiagowDel Estero 267
CHAPTER XVII.
Tucuman 285
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGB
Entrance to the Bay of Rio .... Frontispiece
Off at last .... i6
A Bahian Trader 70
Paqueta 80
A Gaucho's Home in the Swamps 132
Cordoba 189
One of our Guests 229
Giant Cacti on the Salt-Plains 261
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UTr^
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oA THE CRUISE OF THE FALCON.
CHAPTER I.
It was one of those beautiful lazy July days that
even London is occasionally blessed with, and which
tend to inspire busy man with profound misgivings
as to the truth of that trite old lesson, that un-
remitting toil is his destiny and sole object here
below.
My friend Arthur Jerdein and myself, urged by
the glory of the weather, concluded that a holiday
would be to our moral, physical, and mental ad-
vantage, and thereupon acting up to our laudable
determination, walked away from the narrow city
streets, and took boat at the Temple stairs for the
ancient port of Greenwich — a favourite trip of both
of us this, but one that never wearied and seemed
ever new.
To come out of the confined city, and to steam
through the fresh breeze down the grand old river,
among the big ocean-going ships, by the stately
storehouses, and quaint water-side wharves and slips,
has a peculiar fascination of its own, with its mani-
fold suggestions of enterprise in many a strange
VOL. I. B
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2 The Cruise of the Falcon.
land and sea. We enjoyed the orthodox fish dinner,
had another stroll through the models of antique ships
of war and relics of many victories in the hospital,
and then lingered, lazily smoking, on the sea platform
of the palace, as we waited for the boat to take us
back to the unquiet town.
It was indeed a lovely evening — a Thames-side
evening as Turner loved to paint, with just that sus-
picion of haze in the golden atmosphere to tone down
all hardness of outline and crudity of colour, and
glorify all.
We looked over the waters, saw the barges drop-
ping down with the tide, their tanned sails gleaming
like red gold in the western light.
A big vessel passed us — an Australian clipper she,
crowded with emigrants, who raised a farewell cheer
as the last 3hore-boats left her side. A smart yawl
yacht of some sixty tons lay at anchor close in front
of us. We looked on all this, silent for a time, but
our thoughts were very similar, the surroundings
influenced us in like manner.
In all the restless air moved the spirit of travel and
adventure. Each sound of chain rattling through
hawse-pipe, each smell of tar and odorous foreign
wood, each sight was full of reminiscence of far lands,
warm seas, and islands of spice. All seemed to say,
** Go out on the free seas."
We were both vagabonds, I fear, in disposition, with
nomadic blood in our veins, and our previous wander-
ings had not been few. So far, this summer, various
causes had kept me in London, so I was more than
usually thirsting after change from city-life — and lo !
already there was an autumnal beauty in the sky ;
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 3
it would soon be too late — a summer wasted ; all
these months of glorious sunshine and breeze — winter
was near.
The weariness of the city, the sigh of the autumn
wind, the surroundings of travel, all combined to wake
a restlessness and a regret in me ; so too was it with
my friend, for when one of us awoke from the reverie
and spoke, the conversation was on that of which our
hearts were full.
We admired the beautiful yacht riding at anchor;
" How well," one said, " to set to work now and fit
out with all stores a vessel like that, and with a few
good friends sail right away from the coming northern
winter — right away for a year or two into summer
seas ! "
In five minutes — though before leaving London
the faintest shadow of such a plan had not fallen
on our minds — we decided to follow this impulse,
and at the very idea of what we were about to do,
all our discontent vanished like a smoke, and a most
joyous enthusiasm succeeded it.
As is the custom under such circumstances we re-
tired to the " Ship," with solemn ceremony uncorked a
bottle and poured out a libation to propitiate the
sea-god, and iEolus of the winds ; then we returned
to London, light-hearted and full of our plan, to
commence preliminary work that very evening.
Thus it was that the cruise of the Falcon came
about.
My friend Jerdein, I must tell you, has been a
sailor, an ex-officer of the Royal Mail and P. and O.
Companies. I myself am an amateur mariner, having
had many years' experience of fore-and- afters. As
B 2
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4 The Cruise of the Falcon.
skipper, cook, steward, mate, and crew of my little
yawl, the Ripple of Southampton, in which I used
to make periodical descents on the coast of France,
I had gained a fair knowledge of practical seaman-
ship. Now what we proposed to do, was to find two
or three friends to join us in a lengthened cruise in a
small yacht, say of twenty tons burden. The idea
was that we should sail her ourselves, and dispense
altogether with a professional crew — an advantage in
a small vessel. For there your men are thrown in
too close contact with you, and so are apt to grumble,
become spoilt, and drift into a frame of mind that
would make them not be content were you even to
chase them round the decks with tumblers of cham-
pagne while they worked, for such is the nature of
your tar.
On our return to town we exposed ourselves to
some chaff when we revealed our grand scheme.
Those who did not doubt our sincerity were dubious
of our sanity, and unhesitatingly expressed their
opinion that both the boat and the crew would be
found at about the Greek Kalends.
But before many days had passed we found the
vessel ; and very lucky we were in her ; had we
searched all round the British Isles we could have
discovered nothing so perfectly adapted for our pur-
pose.
I had written to Mr. Pickett, of Stockham and
Pickett, Southampton, who had built the Ripple for
me, asking him if he knew of any vessel that would
suit us. He wrote back and told me that there was
the very thing for us laid up for sale in his yard, along-
side the Ripple.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 5
So Jerdein and myself took the next train to
Southampton to inspect her.
We found the Falcon to be a yawl of eighteen tons
register ; thirty tons yacht measurement, a boat of
exceptionally strong construction, for she had been
built in Penzance for a fishing-lugger, and the Pen-
zance higgers have the reputation of being the
strongest and best sea boats of their size.
She had a splendid run forward — a square stern,
which did not perhaps improve her beauty, but gave
her a character of her own, and pole masts. Her
length was forty-two feet, her beam thirteen, and her
draught about seven feet and a half.
She was a most solid vessel, looking as if she
meant business, perfectly sound and possessing a
fair inventory, so it was not long before I had
arranged matters with her owners, and became the
proud possessor of the gallant little craft that was
t6 be my home for nearly two years.
Jerdein and myself left London, and at once com-
menced to fit her out, for we were anxious to sail
away into calm seas before the autumnal equinox
was on us with its gales.
There was plenty to do ; we had her coppered
well above the water-line, fitted her with water-tanks
and biscuit-lockers, reduced her canvas, and ordered
spare and storm-sails. Beside her main, jib-headed
mizen, fore-staysail, and jib, she carried a sliding
gunter gaff-topsail, and a spinnaker, the boom of
which when topped up just came under the fore-stay^
quite sufficient for cruising purposes.
We also constructed a drag or deep-sea anchor, to.
ride to in case of coming across dangerously heavy
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^ The Cruise of the Falcon.
weather. This drag was thus fashioned. To an iron
ring of about five feet diameter was bent a stout
canvas bag with a pointed end. A bridle was attached
to the iron ring, by which it could be made fast to a
twenty-fathom hawser.
With perhaps a spar lashed across the ring as a
further breakwater, and at most a reefed try-sail set
with sheet hauled amidships, I believe that the little
vessel could ride out a storm with as great security
as the mightiest ocean clipper.
We procured all the necessary charts, directories,
nautical instruments, stored away some nine months'
provisions, decorated the main cabin walls with arms
for defence and sport — Martini-Henry rifles, cutlasses,
and revolvers, and purchased a small brass swivel
gun with grape and canister.
No one who has not undertaken to fit out even
so small a vessel for a cruise of years over tens of
thousands of miles of ocean, can conceive how much
there is to think of and provide for.
The report of our proceedings spread in South-
ampton.
Long-shore loafers, yachting-men, and others took
an interest in the curious expedition of an amateur
crew in so small a craft, and there was generally a
small crowd watching the preparations that made
Pickiett's yard noisy with sound of hammering, sawing,
and caulking. Jerdein and myself were employed
for three days in unpacking and storing away bales
of tinned meats and other stores.
Hearing that we did not intend to take pro-
fessionals with us, many affected to disbelieve in us,
jeered at our plans and prophesied we should weary.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 7
of the trip before we got out of the chops of the
Channel, put into Cherbourg, stay there a week or
so, and then return.
By some ill-omened soothsayers we were advised
to paint the vessers name conspicuously on her keel,
so that she would be easily recognized when found
floating upside down on some sea or other.
West Quay, however, believed in us, and Pickett
was enthusiastic on the subject and sanguine as to
our success ; but he and others too would often
inquire, " Here are you and Mr. Jerdein, but where's
the rest of the crew ? We have not seen them yet."
With great difficulty we found two gentlemen to
join us, Mr. Andrews and Mr. Arnaud, but unfor-
tunately neither of these had the slightest idea of
sailing a boat. They knew nothing whatever of
nautical matters, and were too old to learn.
At last they turned up in Southampton, and
Pickett's yard came out to study them. The yacht
sailors looked on with interest as one of these bold
would-be circumnavigators in top hat and kid gloves,
with gingerly steps carefully ascended the ladder
which lay against the Falcon's side, reached the deck,
and, looking round, remarked with quite a nautical
air, as he hitched up his trousers, " What a lot of
strings there are about this boat ! I shall never know
the use of them all."
West Quay likewise studied bold circumnavigatof
Number Two, smiled, and shrugged its shoulders.
This was certainly not a promising crew to take
across the Atlantic, and no one knew this better than
Jerdein and myself.
Thus were we bound to add another member to
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8 The Cruise of the Falcon.
our crew, who was of much more use, though small in
volume.
This was a small boy, a very small boy of about
fifteen, homeless and characterless, who was loafing
about West Quay in search of odd jobs, a half-starved,
melancholy, silent little wretch, who had been the
recipient of more kicks than halfpence during his
short existence. On questioning him, we found he
had been two years on board a North Sea fishingf
boat — no gentle school.
When we offered him a berth on the Falcon he
gladly accepted it.
He never smiled then, that boy— he does now.
When we first engaged him, Jerdein catechized
him thus ;— " What is your name ? " " Arthur." " Can
you steer by compass ? " " Yes." " Can you make
a bowline-knot on this piece of string ? " He satis-
factorily accomplished this feat. " Do you ever get
drunk ? " " Ain't often got the chance, sir/^ " Do
you ever smile ? " " Yes, sir." This response came
out doubtfully, and forthwith he tried to screw some-
thing like a smile out of his despondent features.
It was a ghastly failure ; his muscles were unac-
customed to the necessary movements, and worked
rustily and with effort. Perhaps it was well for him
that he could not smile during the early stages of our
voyage, for there were things to smile at ; deeds of
eccentric seamanship on the part of some of the crew,
at the which, were he to have smiled, a box on the
ears might have brought him back to his normal
melancholy.
Others now volunteered to join the Falcon; stewards
and French cooks, reading of a proposed lengthy
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 9
cruise in the papers, came for engagements, beheld
the vessel and her crew, shook their heads, and
vanished.
At last the Falcon^ fresh painted and trim, lay at
anchor off Southampton pier all ready for sea. There
came one last dinner in old London, much shaking
of hands with old friends, some popping of corks ;
then in the morning another adieu at Waterloo, and
we started for Southampton. I was laden with my
last purchases for the boat, a curiously assorted
luggage when one comes to consider it : six navy
cutlasses, two dozen pairs of spectacles, a lightning
conductor for the main-mast, and a quantity of grape-
shot for the cannon.
As far as the provisions were concerned, the Falcon
was well supplied. We had stores sufficient for five
men for nine months, consisting, among other things,
of 400 lbs. of biscuit and nearly 1000 tins of preserved
meats, vegetables^ &c. A supply of lime juice was,
of course, not forgotten, and an ample cask of rum
was securely screwed down in the main cabin. We
carried about 250 gallons of water, which we reckoned
would last us three months with proper precautions.
On our long passages, as across the Atlantic, all
washing with fresh water was of course forbidden.
We did not omit to take with us some tinned plum-
puddings wherewith to keep up in orthodox form the
Christmas days which we should spend on the Falcon.
We shipped yet another hand before we sailed.
Mrs. Pickett presented us with a little kitten to take
with us. Poor little thing! it purred merrily and
romped about when it first came on board, little
knowing what was before it.
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lo The Cruise of the Falcon.
Before starting, the discipline of the ship had to
be arranged, and the duties of each apportioned out.
Jerdein was officer of the port, I of the starboard
watch ; Andrews was on Jerdein's watch, Arnaud on
mine. The boy, Arthur, was on no watch, as he had
a good deal of lamp-cleaning, &c., in the day. He
used to turn in for the night, only steering now and
then in the day-time, especially at meal-times in fine
weather, when he was left in charge, while we four
sat down to table together.
We used to keep four-hour watches, watch and
watch, in the usual way, with dog-watches from four
p.m. to eight p.m. A set of thirteen rules was drawn
up and posted in the saloon. None of these were
ever observed, with the exception of two.
Rule number eight ordained that, —
" No extra liquor or stores of any kind be issued to
any member of the crew except by special permission ^
As there was no mention as to who was to give
this special permission, the crew observed this rule
by giving themselves permission when necessity re-
quired. Rule number thirteen, again, was to the
effect that, —
" Grog will be served out to each member of the
crew twice daily ^ viz., at noon, one gill; and again at
eight pjn, one gill. In the case of all hands being on
deck in bad weather, an extra allowance wilt be issuedV
The crew never failed to ask for their allowance
of rum at the hours mentioned. On reading the
latter part of this rule, Andrews expressed an inten-
tion of praying for bad weather as often as possible.
He was not much of a nautical man, and found later
on that he did not really know what bad weather
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 1
meant when he made that remark ; judging from
his expression when he did encounter a little rough
sea and wind, he was far from reconciled to it, even
by these extra grog-rations.
The plan of our cruise was as follows : To sail by
easy stages to Buenos Ayres, and then navigate the
great tributaries of the River Plate, the Parana and
Paraguay, as high as we could in the yacht. We
had heard much of the glories of those huge streams,
and of the abundant sport to be found on their
wild banks. No yacht had ever ascended the Para-
guay before, and we anticipated a good deal of
novelty and excitement in those fair regions, should
we, as we little doubted, effect our purpose.
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1 2 The Cruise of the Falcon,
CHAPTER IL
We appointed four p.m., on the 20th of August, 1880
— a Friday, too — for our departure.
That morning the Falcon, ready from truck to
keel, lay at anchor off West Quay. The Blue Peter
was at the mast-head, indicating to all friends that
we were off at last. West Quay took a holiday, and
a crowd of small boats rowed round us all the morn-
ing, filled with many who wished to inspect the
craft.
At two p.m. we stretched the awning on deck,
and a lunch was spread out for a few friends — a
boisterous lunch, in which many toasts were drunk,
and our success warmly wished. At 3.30 p.m. the
bell was rung, the main-sail hoisted, and as ihe last
shore-boat left our side, up came the anchor, and, with
cheers from the spectators, we dropped down the
river on the top of a good ebb.
Almost all the yachts we passed knew us, and
their crews cheered us lustily. We still had a large
company on board, who insisted on seeing us safe
to the chops of the Channel — two friends from
town. Captain Forbes, who had rubbed up our navi-
gation at Southampton, and a pilot.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. \ 3
At midnight we were outside the Needles, and
commenced to feel the swell of the Channel. The
weather was very favourable for the voyage, a light
north-east wind was blowing, which continued until
we dropped our anchor in Falmouth Harbour on the
following midnight, that is, thirty-two hours after
leaving Southampton.
We were now enabled to judge more or less of
what stuff our crew were made during our trial
trip. The philosophic calm which distinguished
Arnaud commenced to declare itself He reclined
in his cabin smoking and thinking during the greater
part of this voyage ; turning out only at meal-times,
and evincing no inclination to undertake his due
share of the work. On the afternoon after leaving
Southampton, while we were passing the Eddystone
lighthouse, he did crawl slowly on to the deck, to our
great surprise, with a blanket over his arm. He
rubbed his sleepy eyes, looked round with a lazy
smile at the smooth sea and cloudless sky, stretched
his blanket on the deck, lay down on it, lit a cigarette,
and with a half-yawn, half-sigh of extreme content,
said, "I could go round the world like this!" and
resigned himself once more to his beloved dolcefar
niente,
Andrews, though more active and willing than
Arnaud, was equally incapable of mastering the very
elements of fore-and-aft seamanship, and caused Jer-
dein, the officer of his watch, as much trouble as Ar-
naud did me. There was a good deal of hard language
to be heard occasionally on board the Falcon^ sounding
above winds and waves, when such an incident as the
following, for instance, would occur:— Time, two a.m.
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14 The Cruise of the Falcon,
Dark and squally night. Knight steering. Arnaud
smoking and pondering (supposed to be looking out'.
Knight, observing squall coming up, loquitur: —
** Arnaud, just run forward and scandalize the main-
sail, will you ; begin by tricing up the tack."
Arnaud creeps deliberately forward, and disappears
in the darkness. Five minutes elapse. Knight, im-
patiently, " Now, then, have not you finished that
yet ? "
Arnaud : " In a minute ; in a minute."
Another five minutes elapse ; we are now in the
middle of the squall, which does not prove so violent
as was anticipated. Knight, very impatient, "You
are a nice, useful fellow on board a yacht ! Ten
minutes, and you have not triced up that tack ; if
that had been a serious squall, we might have gone to
the devil while you were fiddling about there."
Arnaud, very indignant, "I do not care. I will
leave the beastly thing alone. I will not be sworn at.
In the daytime I can find the strings ; in the night I
cannot, and I shall no longer try."
Follows a prolonged and very noisy discussion,
whereon the face of Jerdein appears above the hatch.
" How the blank do you think we can get a wink of
sleep down here when you are kicking up such an
infernal row } &c., &c., blank, &c."
This little episode occurred months after leaving
England, so the reader will perceive that the edu-
cation of my friend progressed but slowly. So, too,
was it when Jerdein and Andrews were on deck. I
w^s awakened one night by a tremendous row, a bang-
ing about of ropes ; and, far louder than all, the sten-
torian and much, blank-emphasized exclamations of
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 1 5
the wrathful Jerdein. On coming on deck I found
that, on being ordered to let fly the jib sheet, that the
ship might go about, Andrews had got rather mixed
up among the " strings," and had let go in succession
the jib haulyards, the bowsprit shrouds, and the peak
haulyards. A very nice crew, this, to cross the
Atlantic with !
And here is another little adventure of Arnaud^s.
On one fine day, the wind being steady, light, and
right aft, and our spinnaker and top-sail set, he was
left alone on deck for a few minutes to steer. Sud-
denly I heard a great flapping of canvas, and on
hurrying on deck, perceived that all our sails had been
taken aback. The main-sail, top-sail, and spinnaker
were bellying out the wrong way, and the vessel was
slowly travelling stern-first. The booms, being guyed,
had not swung aft. I looked at the compass, and
perceived that Arnaud had steered. the vessel right
round, so that she was heading away from her course ;
then I looked at the culprit. He was sitting, with
his legs crossed Turkish-fashion, on the locker aft —
placid, calm as a Hindoo idol. He was deliberately
rolling himself another cigarette, the while professing
to be steering with his elbow, and evidently uncon-
scious of having done aught wrong.
« Well, Arnaud.?" I said.
"I think," he remarked in a weary, careless voice,
looking at the burgee at the mast-head ; " I think the
wind has changed."
We passed two days in the quaint old Cornish sea-
port Some yachting men called on us, and were some-
what surprised to behold our arrangements. " Where
does your crew live ? " they asked after going all over
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1 6 The Cruise of the Falcon^
the vessel, for we were at the time in our shore-going
" togs," and not to be recognized as the four seamen
our friends had perceived in the morning swabbing
decks. " Where do your men live ? there seems to
be only room for yourselves on board."
We pointed to the solemn small boy sitting in the
forecastle, with his perpetual huge quid of tobacco
OFF AT LAST.
in his cheek, and his chum the kitten on his lap.
** That is our crew."
"But the others?"
" There are no others.^
I think these gentlemen looked upon the Falcotiy
with its amateur crew, as being one of the most
eccentric craft that ever wandered about the oceans.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 7
We lay in a quantity of soft tack, bottled beer, and
vegetables at Falmouth, so that we might enjoy the
wonted luxuries of the shore for some few days of our
first voyage.
On the evening of the 24th of August we bid adieu
to the friends who had accompanied us down from
Southampton. The anchor was weighed and catted.
The last link between us and home was broken, and
under all plain canvas Xh^ Falcon glided out of the bay,
bound for Madeira.
Well off, at last, we four, the boy, and the kitten ;
and it was with a curious mixture of sensations that
we sailed out into the dark cloudy night on the
choppy waters of the Channel. The last we saw of
old England was the Lizard lights gleaming from
the darkness. From these we " took our departure,"
and steered a course straight across the Bay of Biscay
for Finisterre. At eight o'clock we lost sight of the
light, and from that moment the routine of shipboard
commenced. Eight bells was sounded ; the patent
log, one of Walker's taffrail logs, was dropped over-
board ; and the watches set ; for from now our life
was no longer to be divided out into days and nights,
but into spells of four hours up and four hours down
— rather trying, at first.
There was usually a strong contrast between the
expression of the faces of the watch coming down to
turn in and of that about to turn out. To the latter
the jovial and noisy way with which the former would
rouse it .from its slumbers was disgusting in the
extreme. Arnaud's face, for instance, when he was
turned out at midnight wore anything but a happy
expression. He did not seem to see any fun in
VOL. I. ■ C
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i8 The Cruise of the Falcon.
Jerdein's boisterous " Now, then, you sleepers ! Now,
then, starboard watch ; up you get ! "
We met splendid weather all the way to Madeira ;
too splendid indeed, for we were becalmed for two
days in the Bay of Biscay, rolling helplessly in the
long swell ; the redoubtable gulf treating us kindly,
and sparing us all its terrors. We were also becalmed
for nearly three days in the neighbourhood of Madeira.
Notwithstanding these five days of enforced idleness,
we accomplished the voyage of 1200 nautical miles in
fourteen days, for the wind was right aft all the way.
It is off the south coast of Portugal that the mariner
may expect to fall in with the north-east trade-wind ;
but we carried the wind from that quarter all the way
from Southampton, a great piece of luck.
It would be tedious, I think, for my readers were I
to give the narrative of these voyages in log form ; I
will therefore but briefly jot down the particular
events of each, especially such as may prove of interest
or of service to yachting-men. The little Falcon gave
great satisfaction on this her trial trip, and we got a
much higher speed out of her than we anticipated^—
on some occasions she has logged as much as nine
and a half knots an hour, running before a heavy sea.
We were enabled to carry our spinnaker and gaff-
topsail throughout this voyage, two days excepted.
On approaching Finisterre we got into a confused
and nasty sea, in which the vessel rolled heavily— and
these lively Penzance luggers do know how to roll*
Jerdein and myself had now to take all the steering
through our watches, as Arnaud and Andrews could
as yet only be trusted at the helm in fine weather.
On the evening of the 29th of August we sighted
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 19
the lofty cliffs of the Spanish coast ; and at dusk
made out the light on Cape Finisterre.
This day we spoke the Maria, a Spanish barque
bound for Coruna. In the night we lost a hand over-
board ; we could not recover him, as it was very dark,
and there was a heavy sea running.
The sad event occurred in the middle watch. I
was steering, with Arnaud standing by my side, when
we perceived the kitten crawl out of his lodging under
the dinghy, which lay upturned on the deck. The
poor thing had been pining ever since we sailed.
The terrible liveliness of the little craft had made him
very sea-sick — and perhaps tinned meat and preserved
milk did not agree with him ; anyhow, he was a
melancholy object, becoming thinner and sadder
every day, as his chum the boy grew fatter and more
contented-looking.
This particular afternoon the kitten had sighted the
smiling downs of Spain, had smelt the land ; so he
plucked up a bit, tried to purr, and evidently enter-
tained hopes of soon setting foot on terrdfirmd again.
But now that he saw us bearing away once more, and
the Finisterre light fading away behind us, despair
seized him. He climbed on to the bulwarks, and
stretching out his neck, looked yearningly out towards
the receding land. Now he gazed down shrinkingly
at the black water, now back at the deck, evidently in
doubt ; and just as the light became quite invisible,
with a piteous mew and one last reproachful look at
the cruel Falcon, and her crueller crew, resolutely
leapt overboard — a deliberate suicide ; death, he
thought, was to be preferred to this life of misery on
the ever-heaving seas.
C 2
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20 The Cruise of the Falcon,
On the 1st of September, being in about latitude
38^ N., and longitude 14° 12' W., off the mouth of the
Mediterranean Sea, we encountered our strongest
breeze— a moderate gale from the N.E., before which
we ran nearly 100 miles in twelve hours. On the 29th
of August, we ran 142 miles ; on the 30th of August,
118; on the 31st of August, 108 ; on the ist of Sep-
tember 180; on the 2nd of September, 150— dead
before the wind, so we had no reason to complain.
We were, on the 2nd of September, only 168 miles
from the Madeira islands, but we did not drop our
anchor in Funchal roads until the 7th of September ;
for we now encountered calm and light baffling winds,
progressing but slowly under a leaden sky, across a
long, smooth-swelling, leaden sea. Tepid, uncomfort-
able weather it was, with the thermometer standing
at 85^ in the shade.
Early in the morning of the 6th of September we
sighted a rugged, rocky coast right ahead of us, which
we soon made out to be the island of Porto Santo, the
northernmost of the Madeiras. A wild enough spot
it appeared to be ; a small isle not six miles long,
with an iron-bound coast, on which the Atlantic seas
perpetually broke with a thunderous roar. It seemed
to be barren in the extreme, merely a tumbled mass
of rugged black mountains, in some places running
sheer into the foaming sea, in others fringed at the
foot by beautiful beaches of golden sands. Strange
did these lofty mountainous islands of mid-ocean
appear to us, after the low verdant shores of old
England.
There was but a light wind blowing, and it was
not till midnight that we sailed between the group
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 2 1
of barren rocky islets known as the Desertas (only
distinguishable this dark night by the roar of the
surf on them) and the east coast of Madeira. Then
we bore away to the westward until we were abreast
of the lights of Funchal, some four miles from the
anchorage, and hauling the fore-sheet to windward,
hove-to till morning.
The next day was cloudless, sultry, and with
scarcely a breath of wind to fill our sails, but with
the assistance of the sweeps we brought the Falcon,
by about midday, to the roadstead of Funchal, and
came to an anchor within hailing distance of the
shore under the walls of the Loo Rock Fort.
And now, indeed, we could perceive that we had
come to a summer land. On the shore in front of us
was the white Portuguese city, and behind it the
island rose in swelling domes of luxuriant vegetation
^nd dark forests, up to the barren rocky mountain-
tops, 6000 feet above the sea. It was pretty hot
too ; the Leste was blowing, the hot wind from the
African Sahara, which brought the thermometer up
to 90^ in the shade.
As soon as the Customs' and the health boat had
come off, and we were free to hold intercourse with
the natives, a bum-boat came off to us from the shore
—the regular old traditional bum-boat of Marryat's
novels — laden with oranges, bananas, figs, mangoes,
fresh butter, fish, soft tack, and other unwonted luxu-
ries. But the bum-boat woman, the sweet little
musical Buttercup, was wanting. In her place was
a shifty-eyed, grave, dark man of unprepossessing
countenance, one Marco, who undertook to supply us
with water, stores, look after our washing, and so on.
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2 2 The Cruise of the Falcon.
He could speak some English, and was laden with
certificates from all the English yachts that had
visited Madeira for years. There are no ship-
chandlers here, so one is left to the mercy of these
irregular land-sharks. Marco is perhaps no worse
than the rest.
Jerdein said, " He may prove to be an honest man,
for he did not wince when swallowing the very strong
tot of whisky I gave him." I have some doubts
myself as to the general efficacy of this ordeal.
The yachtsman is compelled to employ a shore-
boat during his stay here. There is no pier or
landing-stage, and a perpetual surf breaks on the
shingle beach in front of the town, which would
damage or injure a yacht's dinghy. The native boats
are specially constructed for beaching in a surf, being
strong, and provided with broad bilge-pieces.
H.M.S. Miranda was at anchor in the roads when
we entered. She was bound for Tristan d'Acunha, to
look for a shipwrecked crew, on her way to the
Australian station.
The town of Funchal we found to be very dull and
uninteresting ; but like all who visit this island of
perpetual summer, we were astonished at the beauty
of the surrounding country. From the steep, paved,
narrow streets of the suburbs, over whose every wall
hung large bunches ot purple grapes, to the tops of
the swelling hills, the land overflowed with an exu-
berant and lovely vegetation. Myrtles, large trees of
grand geraniums in full flower, roses, vines, oleanders,
bananas, covered the hill sides, while every lane was
shaded with festoons of vines.
But who has not read a dozen descriptions of
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 23
Madeira — of the quaint sleighs drawn by oxen and
laden with butts of rich red wine ; the convent, the
Gran Corral, the dark-eyed beauties fanning them-
selves at the balconies on the sultry evenings, and so
on. These latter we did not see; by the way, I never
have seen any pretty native woman in any Portuguese
possession ; I suppose there are some though, carefully
locked away somewhere, and yet the chances are the
other way, for these stunted, withered, ape-like men,
could hardly be the sons and brothers of handsome
women.
Mr. Falconer, our host of the excellent English
hotel known as Mile's Hotel, a beautifully-situated
place built in the centre of a lovely tropical garden,
made arrangements for us to visit the world-renowned
view of the Gran Corral. He procured good horses
for us — no easy feat in Funchal — and sent on to await
us at our destination an irreproachable luncheon.
The Gran Corral deserves its reputation, and a most
pleasant ride we had to the sublime gorge, by a road
which winds along the sides of mountains, sometimes
precipitous and barren, but generally covered with
verdure and flowers and noble forests of chestnut.
The broad, blue Atlantic was always a feature in the
scene ; so high were we above it that we could see
the light clouds skimming over it below us like
phantom ships.
On our return to the city we enjoyed a bath at the
hotel, then an excellent dinner, then our cigarettes,
liqueur, and coffee, on the verandah which over-
looked the luxuriant tropic garden, the shrill cicala
alone intruding on the stillness of the lovely evening.
All this put us into a very happy state of mind ; we
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24 The Cruise of the Falcon.
felt quite civilized again. Suddenly one of the most
horrid sounds that civilization knows burst on our
startled ears. A gentleman in a neighbouring garden
commenced to practise on the French horn, to play
on which he was evidently learning, or rather about
to begin to learn, for he was an awful novice of
novices on this resounding instrument. This noise
was too much for us ; so remembering that there was
to be a representation this night at the circus, we
hurried thither ; for dull Funchal just now boasted
this excitement — a Yankee circus that was travelling
among the Canary Islands and up and down the
West Coast of Africa. We Avere already provided
with tickets for the performance, for the shrewd
American had already pounced down on us as likely
people to be looking out for entertainment. We had
made the acquaintance of some of this queer crowd of
light-hearted wanderers in the following wise.
We were sitting in a caf^ indulging in glasses of
strong red wine in which cream ices had been stirred
up, a pleasant combination in vogue here. At another
table was sitting a man who eyed us silently for some
time, mentally taking our measure. He was a
shortish man, with close-shaved head and keen
Yankee features, with an eye ever twinkling with
goodnatured fun, and a mobile, nervous mouth.
After, no doubt, having pretty well gauged the
character of the Falcons^ and having detected some
freemasonry of Bohemianism in the appearance of
those great navigators, he came boldly up to us and
with Yankee twang burst at once in medias res.
" Wall, strangers, and so yeVe come all the way from
England in that little craft in the harbour, eh ? Proud
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 25
to make your acquaintaince. Tm the fi-nance man of
Feely's circus, that's who I am. Now I guess you'U
want a dash of moral recreation to-night after all
those days of hauling and heaving, eh ? Here you are
(producing an envelope), just four places left — four
box-tickets for to-night's grand representation of
Feely*s American Circus — right. Yes, TU take a
little aquapura with whisky. EwivUy senores'*
We visited the circus and enjoyed it too, for the
little company was clever. We all lost our hearts to
a pretty and merry- eyed little Yankee girl, who
gracefully did la haute kale on a fine bay horse. I
think our friend, the finance man, saw this, for he
considerately spared us any further wounding of these
too susceptible hearts.
He came off in a boat to call on us the next morn-
ing, and brought with him his " boss," Mr. Feely, and
the Neapolitan clown, but none of the " fair artistes."
•* They are liable to sea-sickness," he diplomatically
explained. This trio stayed to lunch, and we turned
them out our best curry and minced collops, stimu-
lating their appetites first with the world-renowned
Falcon fog-cutter, a terrible beverage of the cock-tail
species, invented by Jerdein in the early days of the
cruise, but much improved by further research and
experiment, as we progressed. It contains manifold
ingredients, of which whisky and Angostura bitters
form the base. What comes on the top of these
depends much on the productsof the clime the /^^/ic^fi
happens to be in, thus a detailed recipe is impossible.
If you ask a denizen of British Guiana what a
" swizzle " is, his reply will be " a Demerara tipple."
He will not condescend to analyze further for you
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26 The Cruise of the Falcon.
that delicate pink foaming draught. So be it with
the Falcon fog-cutter — it is a " Falcon tipple."
The circus boss, the clown, and the finance man,
expressed great admiration for it. Said our old friend
the latter, "Yes, I guess this is the stuff to straighten
one*s backbone. Yes 1 you can fix me another."
Inspired by two or three fog-cutters, he gave us a long
description of the psychological effects of various
drinks on his brain : —
** Take whisky now ; that's the very rumrnest drink
I know. Poets should drink whisky ; it's chock full
of ideas, whisky is. Why, if I drink whisky for
about a week, and then go to bed and turn out the
gas, I see all manner of rum things, don't you }
" Don't I remember all the things, too. I look up,
eh ! and over the top of the door I see a great
grinning crocodile, squatting with legs across — so.
Then he gets bigger and bigger and bigger ; stretches
out like one of those india-rubber balls wijth faces on
them, you know. Well, of a sudden a great, big
black bottle comes out of his mouth, and stands on the
door, and away goes the crocodile. O Lord ! presto !
out flies the cork, bang ! and out pops, like a jack-in-
the-box, an old nigger's head with great rolling eyes ;
you know. Then I get riled, I do ; a joke's a joke,
but this is going too far ; so I throw a boot or a chair,
or anything that comes handy, at that darned head.
Hit him bang! Hurrah! I always hit the head
neat ; don't you } Makes him feel kinder shaky and
sick, so out drop his eyes, and roll about the room,
two great fiery eyes, up and down and round and
round ; up the bed-post, on the floor, against the
window — everywhere.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 27
" Now that's what I don't like, them eyes ; you can't
^^it them with a boot ; they are too cussed lively ;
they dew dodge. No ! no ! I guess those eyes are
too much for any man. When I get as far as the eyes
I get up and light the gas ; don't you ? "
The earnestness, the flow of eloquence of the
finance man when he told us all this were grand. He
seemed to live the horrors over again as he described
the to him familiar sensations, emphasizing the story
with appropriate gesticulations, and pointing to the
imaginary eyes as they rolled by him with great
dramatic power. The " don't you ? " with which he
constantly appealed to us was splendid. He evidently
looked on such symptoms as experienced in the
natural course of things, now and then, by every right-
thinking man.
For two years this company had owned a small
schooner-yacht, in which they travelled with all their
paraphernalia from island to island of the West Indies,
and up the Spanish Main. Then they were wrecked
— whisky, I suppose : the rolling nigger's eyes could
easily be mistaken for the Jamaica lights. Many a
curious yarn these three Bohemians spun us of their
roaming life on the warm Western seas among the
pleasure-loving people of the Spanish Main. Mr. Leely
was the gravest of the three, as became his respon-
sible position ; circus proprietors always are more or
less solemn. It must indeed be hard and delicate
work to keep in order the curious little world of a
travelling circus, with its artistic jealousies and
squabbles.
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2 8 The Cruise of the Falcon.
CHAPTER III.
In the afternoon of the 13th of September, having got
a clean bill of health for St. Vincent, and laid in a good
stock of vegetables and Colares wine, we weighed
anchor, and sailed out of Funchal Bay before a light
breeze. We did not get out into the strength of the
fresh trade -wind until past midnight, as is generally
the case on the lee-side of this island, with its lofty
mountains.
Our next port was to be Porto Grande, in the
island of St. Vincent, Cape Verde Islands, a distance
of 1026 nautical miles. This voyage we accomplished
in seven days and twenty hours, notwithstanding
that we had in all about forty hours of light winds and
calms, and twelve hours of head-wind. But during
the rest of the voyage we had strong north-east trade
winds. In three consecutive days we made the follow-
ing runs : 169, 166, and 183 nautical miles, which is
not bad work for a tubby, jury-rigged craft like
ours.
We were now sailing over a lovely sea. The old
Spanish discoverers named this vast region of the
north-east trade-wind, that extends almost from 36° N.
to the Equator, the Ladies* Gulf. Well named it is
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 29
too. A tropic sea where storms are very rare, where
there is a perpetual summer, tempered by the fresh,
strong trades.
In these warm latitudes the four a.m. to eight a.m.
watch is. the pleasantest of the day. There is first
the matutinal coffee and pipe — for on the Falcon
smoking on duty is not absolutely forbidden. You
steer the gallant little vessel as she reels off her
eight knots an hour before the steady breeze, rolling
and heaving gently as the great green seas pass under
her, sometimes playfully dropping a bucketful of salt
water over the bulwark. You watch the gradual
approach of dawn : there comes a pale flush with
bright emerald streaks in the eastern sky ; and far
quicker than in our northern climes, the sable night
is driven back, and the stars put out ; and gloriously
the tropical sun rises from a throne of rainbow clouds
over burning Africa.
During our voyage to St. Vincent, the thermometer
ranged from 80° to 85° in our cabin. On September
the 14th it rained for the first time since we left
Southampton, but not for long.
On the evening of September the i6th, four full-
rigged ships were in sight of us astern.
The following morning the wind freshened from the
south-east quarter. We held our own against three of
the four ships, still keeping them astern of us. Only
one could gain on us, and at two p.m. she was along-
side. She was a magnificent British ship with all
sail set. We were in company with her for some
hours, during which we kept up a conversation with
her by means of the international code of signals.
She hoisted her number, H.F.S.R., and we found
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30 The Cruise of the Falcon,
she was the well-known fast London clipper, the
Paramata^ of 1521 tons, bound from Plymouth to
Sydney.
Her passengers crowded her decks to look at us, the
sight of so small a craft as the Falcon in mid-ocean
evidently surprising them. The flag conversation
went on in an animated manner, until we bade each
other farewell, dipped our ensigns and separated, she
taking a course considerably to the westward of ours.
This pleasant little encounter was in latitude 26° 24 N.,
longitude 20° 30' W. The other three ships did not
overtake us,.
On September the i8th, we boomed along merrily
before a fresh breeze. It was Saturday, so at eight
p.m. as is the old sea rule, we drank to sweethearts and
wives, and even found occasion for another toast, so
merry were we at our luck and prospect of a smart
run. This was to the tropics, for it was this evening
we entered the torrid zone, crossing the Cancer at
sunset This night the wind freshened considerably,
but blew steadily.
At daybreak, as I was steering, it being my watch,
the spinnaker outhaul carried away, so I had to call
up the watch below to muzzle the sail and repair the
damage. A curious and undignified spectacle the
port watch presented as they hurried up en deshabille.
Andrews was arrayed in a blanket and a pair of
hideous blue spectacles which he considered to be
necessary for his eyes when in tropic seas.
On the 19th, we had reeled off another 166 knots.
And now the gallant north-east wind blew fresher
and fresher still ; at times we made eight and a half
knots an hour, driving showers of spray from our
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 3 1
bows as we plunged " like a frighted steed " from one
great sea to another.
Top-sail and spinnaker were stowed in the afternoon ;
by evening the wind had increased to the force of a
gale, and we reefed the main-sail and shifted the jib.
Jerdein and myself had now to do all the steering,
as was usual when the tiller required delicate hand-
ling. The old boat behaved splendidly, and in twenty-
four hours we had made another 190 miles on our
course. On the morning of the 20th, we sighted a
brig steering W.S.W*., with topgallant mast gone.
Nearly every morning about this time we had a
little fresh fish for breakfast, for many flying fish
would jump over our low bulwarks by night, attracted
by the glare of the bull's eye and side lights (when
we carried them).
On the night of September the 20th. we knew that
we were in the close vicinity of those dangerous
rocky islands, the Cape Verdes. As the weather
was very thick, we first shortened canvas, and later
on, during the middle watch, hove to, so as to keep
off the land till daybreak. At four a.m. I relieved
Jerdein on deck, made sail and proceeded on our
course. We were unfortunate in having an exceed-
ingly unfavourable morning for making a landfall
It was squally, drizzly, thick weather, in which it would
be impossible to distinguish the highest land at the
distance of two miles ; a not uncommon state of
things to encounter off these lofty, cloud-collecting
islands. At seven a,m. we perceived through tne
drizzle a dark, undefined mass on the port bow that
might be a lofty coast, so we bore down towards it.
Then a violent squall came down on us, which
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32 The Cruise of the Falcon,
compelled us to lower the main-sail. At eight p.m»,
of a sudden, a great rift opened out in the thick
atmosphere, and lo ! right ahead, for a moment only
appeared a mass of inky rock filling up the rift, its
edges and extent not yet discernible. Then the rift
in the mist closed, and we were left again in un-
certainty for a while. But soon, with the strengthen-
ing sun, the thickness cleared once more, and we
perceived before us, not three miles off, a dark
threatening mass of mountains which we recognized
as the island of San Antonio.
This is the most northward of the Cape Verde
Islands and one of the most fertile of the group,
though it looks barren and inhospitable enough froc^
the sea. These islands lie at the southern limit of the
north-east trade-winds, and are about 200 miles distant
from Senegambia on the West Coast of Africa. They
belong to Portugal, and are for the most part in-
habited by a fine-looking race of negroes, giants of
their kind, who are good sailors and farmers. The
whole group is volcanic — a congregation of curiously-
serrated, dark mountains, that look as if vomited
out from hell itself, so weird some of them appear.
The island of San Antonio presents a fine appear-
ance from the sea. It is a grand volcanic mass of
dark rock, whose peaks rise above the clouds (it
attains an elevation of 7100 feet), and at whose feet
is a perpetual white line of heavy surf. Bleak and
uninhabited as it appears to be, this island has a
considerable negro population, and they say contains
fertile vales between its precipices, where vines, cocoa-
nuts, plantains, indigo, and cotton, are cultivated by
a mild and industrious coloured people.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 33
The island of San Vincente is separated from that
of San Antonio by a channel seven miles wide.
After close-hauling the Falcon, on the port tack so
as to double the north-east Cape of San Antonio, we
then bore away down the channel for Porto Grande—
the harbour of St. Vincent.
This is the most important island of the Cape
Verde Archipelago, having been selected as a coaling
station and place of call for several lines of ocean
mail-steamers. But of all the group, none I imagine
is so barren and burnt-up a desert as is this little
islet. As we approached it we could easily dis-
tinguish its volcanic origin. It is merely a burnt-
out volcano. From the golden sands that divide it
from the blue tropic sea it rises a confused mass of
utterly bare, fantastic mountain-peaks. Steep and
profound ravines descend to the sea in places, black
and lifeless some of them as if they had been cloven
but yesterday with a great pickaxe out of a mountain
of coal. It is not a cheerful-looking place, this arid
African crag.
At midday we dropped our anchor in Porto Grande
Bay, close to the wretched little Portuguese town.
A splendid and well-sheltered harbour is this, capable
of holding at least 300 sail. The entrance which
looks out toward the island of San Antonio is about
two miles wide. Once within the bay one finds him^
sdf in clear, smooth water, surrounded on all sides
by shores of beautiful yellow sands and coral rocks,
from which rises the amphitheatre of barren, tooth-
shaped mountains. The only objection to this land-
locked basin is the almost daily occurrence of furious
squalls, which sweep down on it froai the ravines.
VOL. I. D
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34 The Cruise of the Falcon.
Twice during our stay here we dragged our anchor
in consequence of these.
The little town on the beach, with its whitewashed
houses and bright red roofs, looked cheerful against
the dreary background ; for from the domed mountain-
tops to the shore sloped down the couloirs of black
lava and debris of old volcanoes. Travellers have
likened this aspect to that of a raked-out coal fire
of giants — a Titanic heap of cinders— and this
exactly describes it One could almost imagine that
the fire still smoulders below, so intensely hot is it
in this land-locked bay ; an atmosphere of a furnace
at times envelops the town. On the desolate land
there is no green to relieve the eye, no trees to keep
off the burning rays of the tropic sun. They say that
the natives are strict Catholics and very pious. I am
in no wise surprised at this. The contemplation of
such scenery, the sensation of such a temperature,
must often suggest thoughts of the next world to the
most frivolous mind.
The health-officer came off in a boat rowed by
sturdy negroes clad in white, and gave us pratique ;
th^n in his turn came off the Marco of St. Vincent
in his bumboat — a merry little Portuguese, with a
ne'er-do-weel twinkle of eye and cock of hat, Jos^ by
name ; he spoke English fluently, and offered to find
all we wanted in the way of provisions during our
stay. Very well he did it too ; and, to our surprise,
without swindling us in the least. Let me recom-
mend little Jose to future callers at this port.
It is easy to procure any quantity of bananas,
mangoes, cocoanuts, and other fruits here. They are
brought over from the other more fertile islands in
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 35
small craft by the negroes. A merry, prosperous
people these same islanders appear to be, perpetually
jabbering and grinning like so many monkeys. Some
of these islands, they tell me, are very negro and
half-caste Eutopias. Each man owns his little plot
of land, which produces more than suffices for his
needs. Coffee, papias, sugar, bananas, &c., are cul-
tivated in the fertile vales beneath the volcanic crags.
Yankee schooners carry on a brisk trade among these
people, bartering cheap and gaudy cottons, knives,
and such goods, for agricultural produce. San Vin-
cente is not self-supporting even in the way of water,
of this necessary there is little, if any. Some is
brought over from San Antonio in schooners, but the
shipping is chiefly supplied by Miller the coal-king,
who condenses large quantities of sea-water in giant
tanks.
San Vincente is one of the stations of the Anglo-
Brazilian Telegraph Company, so there are about
fifteen young Englishmen in the company's employ,
resident here. It was chiefly owing to the companion-
ship and hospitality of these gentlemen that we lay
at anchor off* this cinder-heap for so long as nine
days. Every naval and royal mail officer knows the
telegraph station and the telegraph men of St. Vin-
cent. These all live together in one large building,
by far the most luxurious place on the island, with a
spacious verandah surrounding it, libraries, reading-
rooms, billiard-rooms, and all the other luxuries of a
club. Were it not for the number of the company's*
employes, and this pleasant system of half-club, half-
college fellowship, I should imagine their life in such
a hole as Porto Grande would be intolerable, so utterly
D 2
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36 The Cruise of the Falcon.
destitute of all society or amusement is it As it
is they live joUily enough. They give their little
dances to the officers and passengers of passing mail-
steamers ; play at cricket on the blazing sands ; keep
their four-oared boat, and so on. The arrival of a
steamer with a good supply of first-class passengers
of the fair sex, is generally the signal for a ball, for
St, Vincent can turn out little in the feminine line —
save negresses and mulattoes. Sadly were the tele-
graph men, and we mariners of the Falcon too, for
the matter of that, disappointed, when the SS. Coto^
paxi called here on her way to Australia, with a full
complement of passengers. We had eagerly looked
forward to her arrival. There would be English
papers, the faces of English girls again, a jolly ball.
But, alas ! there was a case of scarlatina on board,
so she was put into quarantine during her stay. A
great disappointment for all parties — the passengers
perhaps not least ; the emigrants hung over the bul-
warks all day, gazing sadly at the forbidden terra
firma.
Of the native population of St. Vincent one cannot
speak in very high terms. The whites, or rather
mulattoes, for pure whites are rare, are for the most
part the descendants of the lowest scum of Portugal ;
for this island was till recently a penal settlement,
and a Portuguese felon is not the brightest specimen
of felonhood. The negroes are physically a splendid
race ; the women carry enormous burdens that would
put to shame a porter of Stamboul. Morally, the
least said about the darkies the better. They have
acquired all the vices of the white man, but none of
his virtues — if their Portuguese masters ever had any
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 37
virtues, by the way. Some of their customs are very
curious ; they hold drunken wakes over their dead,
and with the Christianity which they profess, mingle
all manner of barbaric rites, handed down from their
African ancestors.
One fine morning Arnaud and myself started off
in our Berthon collapsible boat to explore the other
side of the bay under Washington Head, where the
sands, piled up in huge dunes, glittered like pale gold
under the vertical sun. Smooth enough was the
outward journey in the little ten-foot canvas boat,
but on nearing the land we found, what we could not
perceive from the Falcofis deck, a heavy surf breaking
on the shore. The edge, too, of the beach was thick
with sharp, ugly-looking, coral rocks.
Anyhow, here we were, and land we must to ex:
plore those great slopes of glaring sand. As soon as
we had reached the breakers, and were, as we ima-
gined, in sufficiently shallow water, I gave the order
to jump overboard, so that we might lift the boat
safely on shore without running a hole in her bottom.
To Arnaud's astonishment the water was well over
our heads ; so when we had at last successfully landed
and carried the boat out of reach of the breakers, he
upbraided me sadly. "You told me we were in
shallow water — do you call that shallow water ? "
We sat down on the burning sands under the sun
to dry, and forthwith entered into a fierce discussion
as to whether ten feet was shallow water or the re-
verse ; I holding the former, Arnaud the latter view.
Shallow, I said, was a purely relative adjective, and
in these circumstances ten feet was shallow. Arnaud
held that water could not be shallow for walking and
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38 The Cruise of the Falcon.
fording purposes, when there were three or four feet
of it above your head.
In five minutes the tropical sun had dried us, so
we postponed the discussion, and wandered about
collecting shells and specimens of coral, enjoying this
amusement, I verily believe, as much as we used to do
when we were small imps with spade and bucket in
the olden times.
The trade-wind blows all the refuse of Porto Grande
across the bay to this beach, and so stalking about on
the sands, greedily gobbling, were the ugliest and most
mangy- looking vultures I have ever cast eyes upon.
They were quite tame, and allowed us to approach
them within a yard or so. These useful scavengers are
protected by law, and a heavy fine is inflicted on any
one who kills one of them — hence their tameness.
They are evidently quite aware of this law, and insult
you with impunity. They are most insolent beasts,
worse than Barbados niggers. One annoyed me so
much that I threw a stick at him ; whereon he flapped
his wings, made ugly faces, swore at me in the most
horrible manner, and then picking out two witnesses
from his fellows, marched oflf with them doubtlessly
to inform the authorities of Porto Grande of my
conduct.
Arnaud and myself now proceeded to re-embark —
no easy matter, for the surf had increased consider-
ably. Our naked feet suffered a good deal during
the process, for the shore was covered with sea-
urchins, whose hedgehog-like bristles pierced and broke
oflf in them. We waded in quickly after a returning
wave, carrying the boat with us, jumped nimbly in
and paddled out ; but alas ! we were not sharp enough,
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 39
for before we had got beyond the second line of
breakers a roller caught us, slued the boat round,
capsized her, rolled us out, and we had to draw her
up on shore, bale out, and start again. Five times
in succession we were thus capsized, but always
managed to save the boat and keep her off the coraL
We knew that there were ground sharks in this part
of the bay — not a pleasant matter to think of. The
sixth time we altered our tactics and succeeded.
We followed a breaker, carrying the boat with us ;
Arnaud jumped in, seized the paddles ; I held on to
the stern and managed to guide her safely over the
next breaker; then he rowed with all his energy till
he was well outside the surf in deep water. It was
now my turn. I swam out till I came to the boat,
put a hand on either side of the stern, and jumped in
between my hands. My weight pulled her under,
and half-filled her with water, but she did not capsize,
and we soon baled her out.
I have mentioned this to show what can be done
with a Berthon's boat ; no wooden dinghy could have
got off from that shore then ; she would have most
certainly been stove in. But two men with practice
and a little activity can carry this little light canvas
tub through the broken water and safely embark as
we did on this occasion, without scratching a particle
of paint off her fragile sides.
We carried a fourteen-foot boat besides the Berthon,
and in my opinion both are necessary in their different
ways for a cruise like this of ours.
Two more emigrant steamers touched at Porto
Grande during our stay, both got pratique, and so
the town was flooded with these travellers, who were
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40 The Cruise of the Falcon.
enabled to stretch their legs on shore for a few hours.
One was the French mail from Marseilles to the River
Plate, with a motley crowd of French, Gallicians,
Basques, and Italians, for Buenos Ayres and Monte
Video. The other was a Money- Wigram's with
English emigrants for Australia. Curious it was to
contrast the foreigners with our own countrymen.
The foreigners were noisy enough, raising merry and
boisterous choruses of their native lands in the caf&
and in the streets, but they did not go out of the way
to make themselves objectionable : on the contrary,
the Britishers, who seemed to belong to the *Arry
class for the most part — ^what on earth does he expect
to do as an emigrant ? — were inclined to insult and
ridicule all they met, in their supreme contempt for the
*' blank '* foreigners. The niggers as usual crowded
round the new arrivals with all manner of odds and
ends to sell — tropical fruits, sea shells, coral necklaces,
and the like.
Of course one of the 'Arrys thought it high fun to
snatch the stock of bananas from one poor old white-
haired nigger without paying for them, and divide
the spoil among his sniggling 'Arry friends who stood
round admiring his wit and pluck. Ah, 'Arry ! brutal,
brainless coward that you are, how often one itches
to kick you well, thou foulest product of our insular
civilization !
Sundav, the 26th of September, was a hot day,
a day of oppression and irritability, which found
vent, as far as the Falcons were concerned, in two
fashions. The morning was too sultry to do any-
thing ; we lay about the cabin lazy and sulky, sleep-
ing and wrangling alternately. First we entered into
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 41
a most fierce discussion on some subject of dynamics,
in which all parties waxed savage ; as a matter of
fact, none of us knew anything about the question in
point. Then came lunch— curry and Collares wine ;
this mollified us somewhat, and the talk veered round
to a more gentle discussion as to the comparative
beauty of the fair sex of different nations, over our
pipes. But, alas, from that we got on to some pro-
found metaphysical question, which stirred up all our
latent irritability again. At last, unable to convince
each other, we went to sleep.
In the evening we were engaged to dine with the
telegraph men. Arthur put us on shore, then pulled
back to the Falcon. When we reached the verandah
of the telegraph station, just as the sun was setting,
Jerdein's sharp eye detected a suspicious circumstance
— a boat with three men in it was rowing oflF to the
Falcon, Yes ! there could be no mistake ; they were
now alongside ; now they had boarded her. Then
the rapid night of the tropics fell, and all was obscure.
Jerdein and myself ran down to the beach, found a
boat with two negroes, and engaged them to row us
off. We told them to go off quickly, but noiselessly,
explaining our plans to them. They greatly enjoyed
the situation.
We found a boat made fast to the Falcony but no
one suspected our arrival ; our foemen were all in the
forecastle, where we heard them laughing boisterously.
Jerdein and myself jumped down the companion,
passed through the main-cabin, and so into the fore-
castle, where we surprised three Portuguese sailors.
Without parley we proceeded to belabour these
fellows; there was a fine scrimmage. They were
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42 The Cruise of the Falcon.
driven on deck ; one fell into the boat they had come
in, and alone managed to escape with her ; the other
two we knocked overboard, to find their way to their
vessel as well as they could through the sharks ; the
latter, by the way, are too delicate in their tastes to
feed on Portuguese mulattoes unless very hard pressed
for a meal, so I suppose they returned safely to
whence they came*
Arthur told us that, he was below when they came
on board ; they paid no attention to his remon-
strances at their uninvited appearance, but seized
him, prevented him from going on deck, and com-
menced to inspect the vessel for grog, and anything
else, I suppose, that might come in handy. After our
victory, which proved a fine safety-valve for the irri-
tability caused by the sultriness of the day, we handed
over a loaded six-shooter to Arthur, in the presence
of our two grinning negro boatmen, with injunctions
to challenge once, and then shoot, any other visitors
who might come off that night. The boy was proud
of his post, he took the revolver with a grin and
meaning gesture that made the niggers shudder. I
did not think that we should be troubled any more
after this.
He is a bloodthirsty boy, this Arthur. He has, I
think, fed his youthful mind with literature of the
" penny dreadful " class. At every port he would ask
such questions as, " Be there savages here, sir ? '* " Be
there Indians in these parts } ** Very disappointed
he used to appear on receiving an answer in the
negative, but used to solace himself with dreams of
future bloody encounters. " With all these guns and
cannons we ought to do for them when we do see
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 43
them — eh ! sir/* he would say. He used to look at
our little brass cannon with great respect and ad-
miration, as being a wonderful piece of ordnance ;
was very fond of it, indeed, save when he was set to
polish it. When, later on, we did come across his
long looked-for Indians and savages, I fear one of the
cherished illusions of his life vanished, a fragment of
his youth was gone ; for lo ! they were not cannibals ;
neither did they scalp him ; neither were they, as
a rule, even naked — simply a drunken, dirty, very ugly
set of uninteresting ragamuffins.
The morrow after this night of wrath was a busy
day for all hands ; we were employed in oiling spars,
taking in stores and water — in short, preparing all for
sea. But after all this work we did not sail on the
following day after all, but indulged in a holiday ; for
the SS. Thales was in the harbour, with the latest
English papers on board, so we went in for a grand
read at the telegraph station. The same steamer
had also landed in St. Vincent a small quantity of
that unwonted luxury, ice. One of the storekeepers
near the beach had obtained a supply of the precious
article, so most of the white population were in and
out of that store a good deal during that day. The
Anglo-Saxon hates to see waste, so he consumed a
fair amount of iced brandy-and-soda and bottled beer,
in order to save that ice from melting its coolness
away on the desert air, as it otherwise would rapidly
have done.
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44 The Cruise of the Falcon.
CHAPTER IV,
Our first long run was now before us ; Bahia dos Todos
OS Santos in Brazil, across the broad Atlantic, was to
be our next port. The time this voyage might
occupy was rather uncertain, for we were now towards
the southern limit of the north-east trade-winds. We
had to traverse the region of the south-west African
monsoon, which blew in our teeth, and that broad
belt of equatorial calm, so terrible to sailors — the
sultry doldrums, where a ship may lie for weeks on the
hot, smooth water under a cloudless sky, with the
pitch oozing from her decks ; a region of unbearable
calm, broken occasionally by violent squalls, torrential
rain, and fearful lightning and thunder. All these
difficulties conquered, we should be in the pleasant
realm of the strong south-east trade-wind — the trade-
wind of the southern hemisphere — which blows fresher
and steadier than the north-east trade, and under
whose favouring breath we should be able to reel off
the knots right merrily.
We steered so as to cross the equator in longitude
24° W., which Jerdein considered to be the best route
at this time of the year.
As this voyage will be of some interest to yachting
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 45
men, I shall, contrary to my usual custom, narrate
it in the form of a diary. It will be observed that we
were thirteen days reaching the equator ; that for the
greater part of that time we encountered calms and
south-westerly monsoons, so that sailing as we gene-
rally did, close-hauled on the starboard tack, we were
driven considerably to the eastward of our course,
on the tenth day being as far east as 21° 30' W. Not
till we were on the equator did we fall in with the
south-east trade, which then stood by us pretty
steadily till we reached Bahia,
Throughout the voyage the thermometer ranged
between 85° to 90° in the shade. In the following
diary I divide time in the civil fashion for convenience,
but the positions and distances are extracted from
the log, and given at midday, nautical fashion.
October ist — Weighed anchor at midday. Light
N.E. wind. Ran down the San Antonio channel
under all canvas. On our left were the bare volcanic
masses, the forbidding gorges of San Vincente ; a
thundering line of breakers dashing against the shore
everywhere: on our right the more smiling moun-
tains of the isle of San Antonio. The lofty summits
of both islands were hidden in the clouds. At night
wind dropped ; calm, and vivid lightnings.
October 2nd, — Dead calm ; nasty drizzle ; hot, de-
bilitating weather ; vessel rolling uncomfortably in
the swell. Through the haze perceived the lofty
mountains of Brava,the southernmost and most beau-
tiful of the Cape Verde Archipelago. Towards evening
an E.S.E. wind sprung up, which enabled us to average
six and a half knots an hour during the night.
October yrd. — ^Glorious sunny weather ; wind E.S.E.
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46 The Cruise of the Falcon.
Eleven a.m. — one of the crew was caught in a serious
breach of discipline ; man at the helm, too, at the
time. He was sitting down to his work ; was wear-
ing blue Spectacles, and, worst of all, was reading a
play of Sophocles in the original. Fancy a man at the
wheel reading Sophocles ! He was seriously rebuked
by the officer of his watch, Jerdein, who is a martinet
in his way, and who gazed at him for fully five minutes,
speechless with dismay, ere he could find voice for
vituperation.
October \th. — Wind E.S.E. At midday in longi-
tude 25° i' W., latitude 10^ 32' N. ; distance made
this day 152 miles. During the day the wind came
round, till it was quite aft. The glass fell rather
suddenly — more than a tenth in a few hours. In the
evening there was a wild appearance in the sky, slight
squalls of wind and rain, and signs of worse weather
coming ; then followed a magnificent sunset, ominous
of storm, and a calm for a while.
So threatening was the appearance of the heavens
to windward, that all hands stayed on deck, to see
what was coming. Right aft we perceived an inky
mass of cloud rising from the horizon. It had huge,
rugged, black streaks diverging from it in all direc-
tions, like the claws or arms of some great monster
crab or polypus. Bigger and bigger the threatening
mass swelled, and the evil-looking arms stretched
half round the horizon and to the zenith, as if the
monster was about to inclose the whole world in
its grasp — a wonderful and awful appearance. Our
sails flapped as we rolled in the calm ; we lowered
the main-sail, made all snug, and awaited. First con-
stant and vivid sheet and forked lightning of a blue
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 47
colour came out of the cloud, and then down burst the
squall on us, and such a squall. The cloud had
enveloped all the sky, had blotted out all the stars ;
never have I experienced so complete a darkness
on the seas. The wind blew with great fury ; and we
could not turn our faces to the stinging rain, so smartly
it struck. We scudded on before the heavy gusts. As
I steered I had to keep the vessel right before them,
judging the direction by the feel of the wind on my
neck, for the binnacle-light was blown out. Certainly
it was an awful and mysterious sensation to be out in
this small boat at the mercy of this tropical storm of
the Atlantic. The roar of wind and rain rendered
even our loudest shouts inaudible to each other across
the decks.
It was, as I said, pitch-dark. As I steered I could
only see two whirling masses of foam on either side
of our bow like two great wings, thrown up by our
speed. Our side-lights were lit. On the foaming
mass on our port side fell the red, on that on our
starboard side fell the green light, lending a spectral
horror to the scene. With this exception, the occa-
sional lightnings alone threw a fitful light on the
noisy darkness around. Above the roar of wind and
water but one sound was heard — our bell pealed forth
loudly, with each exceptional pitch of the vessel, a
deep funereal tone that added to the solemnity.
This squall lasted nearly an hour ; others succeeded
it throughout the night from various quarters, but
none coming nearly up to it in fury.
October $tk. — Cloudy, warm, no wind. We were
in that most uncomfortable position for a vessel,
becalmed in a heavy sea ; for last night's weather
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48 The Cruise of the Falcon.
had raised a confused tumult of choppy waves, in the
trough of which we rolled and pitched horribly with
all sail stowed. It was a lazy day for all, our chief
employment being eating bananas and vainly attempt-
ing to catch a large shark who was prowling round
us, a wary old ruffian who refused the most tempting
bait The calm continued throughout the day. As
usual, ill-temper resulted. Two of the crew entered
into a fierce discussion as to whether the plantains
which were to serve as one of the courses for dinner
should be cooked and eaten with salt like potatoes,
or be treated with sugar like fruit.
At eight p.m. there were signs of squally weather
in the sky, so the crew waxed hopeful and good-
tempered again. During the night we had occasional
showers and light squalls from S. to S.S.W., at which
we put the vessel close-hauled on the starboard tack.
Then came the calm again. We were now having
an experience of that tantalizing, wearisome region
where the doldrums and south-west African mon-
soons fight for mastery over the equatorial sea.
All this time we were being drifted a considerable
distance daily out of our course to the eastward, for we
were now in the Guinea current, an equatorial stream
of hot water (its temperature is about 84°) setting
into the Gulfs of Benin and Biafra. So warm is the
water that the morning douse with the bucket, which
took the place of the tub, was no longer refreshing
as it used to be, for the temperature of the sea was
of course higher than that of the night and morning
air. When a sea came on board in the night it felt
like hot water to our faces and bare feet.
October 6ik, — Again a dead calm ; 88® in the
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 49
shade ; a high sea running; a fearful rolling, creak-
ing, and groaning of ship ; all our canvas was stowed ;
a barque in sight in the same situation ; for forty
hours we did not lose sight of her, though we were
bound in different directions ; lat. 9° 14' N., long.
24° 30' W. As no sharks seemed to be near, I
jumped overboard for a short mid-ocean swim. At
midday there came on us a slight squall with rain.
We hoisted the canvas, but in half an hour it was as
calm as ever.
October Jik, — A light northerly air and very heavy
equatorial rain. We stripped and enjoyed a fresh-
water shower-bath ; also blocked up the scuppers
and collected enough water to refill some of our
empty breakers. We only made seventeen miles
this day, so light was the wind.
October 8/>^.— Calms and light northerly airs.
There was a haze to the S.E. as if portending our
entrance into the region of the trades. This day
we made seventy-two miles on our course.
October ()th, — Tacking very slowly against head
variable winds, divided from each other by hours
of dead calm. In the afternoon we came to a dis-
turbed sea, where it had evidently been recently
blowing : 87° in the shade. Spoke an English
barque homeward bound. At night passed very
close to another vessel. Neither of us were
carrying side-lights, and the night was dark, but we
showed them our bull's-eye, to which signal they
responded by showing another. A night of calm
with occasional squalls from every point of the com-
pass.
October loth, — A strong and squally S.W. monsoon
VOL. I. E
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50 The Cruise of the Falcon.
sprang up. We sailed close-hauled on the starboard
tack. The vessel was very lively but not wet. At noon
the wind freshened to a half-gale from the S.W., with
heavy squalls at intervals. We sailed under close-
reefed main-sail, fore-sail, and storm-jib. In the night
it was blowing a moderate gale of wind in our teeth.
The Falcon was livelier than ever ; the way she
jumped, first her head and then her stern into a sea,
was a thing to experience. At midnight the vessel
was labouring so heavily that we hove her to, for it
was a shame to tax too much the endurance of the
brave old boat
October nth. — At dawn the great seas looked most
imposing, with the fiery sunrise lending a weird
colour to them, as they charged on towards us. At
eight a.m., as the wind was moderating, we proceeded
on our voyage. We put the vessel on the port tack,
for the wind was S. by W., and we had been driven
considerably to the eastward of our course. At mid-
day our position was lat. 4° 58' N., long. 2i° 49' W.
All hands were now well weary of this S.W, monsoon
blowing in our teeth, with its heavy, confused seas
and squalls.
October \2th, — Fine, sunny, but disagreeable day;
for the wind, though still as a rule from the S.W.
quarter, seems to come at times from everywhere and
anywhere, hence a troublesome sea. There was a
curious hazy appearance to-day to the S.E., which
cheered us somewhat as indicative of change. We
had now reached a locality between the S.W. mon-
soon and the S.E. trade, where these winds contend
continually for the mastery. They certainly have
ploughed up their battle-field with their rival artillery
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 51
into short, choppy furrows, very nasty 'for small
vessels like ours that have to cross them.
At midday we were in lat. 3° 56' N., long. 22° 50'
W.
October i^th. — ^A marvellous sunrise ; on the eastern
horizon lay a bar of bright gold, with a mass of fiery
red above, like a coast of golden sand lit by an intense
light, and backed by mountains of half-molten iron.
The wind blew fresh to-day from S. by W., to S. by
E. At noon our position was lat. 1° 47' N., long.
23° 8' W. ; distance made in the twenty-four hours,
146 miles.
During the night, of a sudden, with a squall, the
trade-wind burst down on us at last, then settled
down strong and steady : so we rejoiced exceed-
ingly.
October i^tk, — A glorious morning, no cloud in the
sky, and a fresh trade- wind. At seven a.m. we crossed
the line. At midday we had reeled off a hundred
and sixty miles on our course, and at lunch were
glad over our last two bottles of Collares wine from
Madeira, which we had reserved for our arrival at the
equator. Our luck had changed as we entered the
southern hemisphere, after thirteen days of calms,
squalls, and head-winds.
Jerdein reported a most curious phenomenon in his
morning watch. The sea about a mile from us be-
came suddenly disturbed, boiling up violently, as from
a subterranean spring. This lasted for about two
minutes. He said he thought it would have been
highly dangerous had we happened to be over the
spot. Throughout the day we observed great patches
of discoloured water, having exactly the appearance
£ 2
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52 The Cruise of the Falcon.
of shoal water. These and similar phenomena are'
frequently observed in this part of the ocean. Often
a ship reports that hereabouts she has experienced
a violent shock, similar to that which is felt when a
rock is struck. Sometimes a great rumbling is heard
like that of a heavy chain running through the hawse-
pipes, and the vessel quivers like a leaf in the wind.
Another time in smooth water a vessel has been
known to heel right over suddenly, as if she had run
on a sand-bank, for this is a region full of most un-
canny apparitions for the mariner — a sort of haunted
corner of the sea.
Before this ocean had been as thoroughly sounded
and surveyed as it is now, these phenomena were at-
tributed to the presence of unmarked sand-banks and
rocky shoals, and are thus put down as vigias in the
old charts. But it must have astonished the mariner
somewhat to find that he got no soundings with his
deep-sea lead, immediately after experiencing one of
these shocks ! It is now known that there is no less
depth than 2000 fathoms anywhere in this neigh-
bourhood, and submarine earthquakes are acknow-
ledged as the true cause of these convulsions. So
frequent are these manifestations of suboceanic dis-
turbance, that this is now termed **the volcanic
region of the Atlantic/* Fearful indeed must be the
forces that can transmit such violent action upwards
through three miles of water.
This afternoon we noticed that the sea changed to
a light green colour, and the thermometer suddenly
fell six degrees. These, I believe, are also usual
phenomena on this mysterious tract of ocean.
October isM.— We sailed to-day through an enor-
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 53
mous fleet of Portuguese men-of-war (Nautilus),
under full canvas. Pretty these little creatures (I
don't suppose I can call them fish, and creature is a
safe term) appeared, with their delicate pink fairy
sails spread to the favouring wind. This day we
logged 160 miles. Position at midday, lat. 3° 15' S.,
long. 24° 39' W.
October 16/^.— Day's run, 175 miles ; lat. 5° 45' S.,
long. 25° 55' W. Spoke a full-rigged ship bound for
the Cape of Good Hope.
October lyth. — We generally hold our own against
the trading-vessels we come across, and on many
occasions have shown some barque or ship a clean pair
of heels; but this day we were ignominiously beaten,
but by so beautiful a vessel that we forgive her. She
was a clean, bright Yankee barque, the Golden Cross.
Her sails were as well cut as a yacht's, and as snowy.
By noon we had added another 169 miles to our
score.
October iStA, — The wind was now so much to the
E. of S.E., that we were enabled to hoist our
spinnaker with advantage. A very hot day. The
wind was lighter, so our day's work was only 141
miles.
October igtA. — Wind still lighter; day's work, 118
miles ; passed a jackass-rigged craft
October 20th. — Thermometer 90° in cabin, 125° on
deck ; wind light and variable ; day's work, 89
miles.
October 2 \st, — A light breeze from S.E. ; barometer
fell a tenth. We observed three interesting phenomena
this day. The first was a huge waterspout, which
crossed our bows at about two miles' distance ; the
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54 The Cruise of the Falcon.
second phenomenon was America ; the third a bottle
of Collares wine..
I was at the tiller ; Amaud was' sadly contemplating
a small whale, which was floundering about near us ;
Arthur was, as was his wont, at the mast-head,
looking out for passing vessels — this and fishing for
flying-fish with a bull's-eye at night being his chief
diversions on board. Suddenly the boy cried " Land
right ahead, sir ! '* I was incredulous, for I did not
expect to sight the coast for many hours. According
to Jerdein's calculations — he navigated during this
part of the cruise — we ought now to have been some
thirty-five miles off" the land. He laid the blame
afterwards on the chronometers ; but I am inclined to
think that he made some error in his calculations, for
they were good chronometers, and never played us
such a trick on any other occasion.
On going aloft with the glasses I saw that the boy
was right ; there was no mistake about it at all.
There before us lay a long line of low sandy dunes,
fringed with cocoanut-trees. I rather surprised Jer-
dein, who was sleeping below, when I touched him
on the shoulder and remarked quietly, "Here is
America."
It was a dreary coast— and so it is all the way from
Bahia to Pernambuco, low and monotonous, but strange
and of the tropics to one coming from the northern
lands for the first time. A treble belt of striking
colour clove the vast blue spread of sea and sky.
First was a band of bright white, the foam of the
perpetual breakers on the coast ; then a long strip
of golden sand, and above, a broader green belt of
waving cocoa-palms, dark against the pale blue sky.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 55
The third phenomenon I spoke of was a bottle of
Collares wine. Having had a good look at the
American coast, our storekeeper took a dive below,
and soon reappeared on deck with a smile and this
same bottle. He was greeted with a jshout of surprise.
The existence of such a treasure on board had not
been in the least suspected by the rest of us ; but this
wary member of the crew had secreted this last bottle
of our Madeira cellar, in order to produce it on our
first sighting the New World. It was formally un-
corked, and with its assistance we saluted the Western
Continent. We had made the land about 100 miles
to the northward of Bahia.
October 22nd. — A hot sun and a light breeze. We
slowly followed the coast, at a distance of about
two miles from it. A line of sand fringed with
cocoa-nuts, and — visible from the mast-head only —
dense black masses of forest behind, unrolled them-
selves before us in monotonous panorama as we sailed
by. We perceived no signs of human life on the
shore, save here and there what appeared to be a
negro hut.
At last we sighted the lighthouse of San Antonio,
and the scenery changed ; gently sipping hills came
down to the shore, covered with all manner of tropical
forest and garden, among which nestled the villas
and palaces of the wealthy merchants of Bahia. A
wonderful sight this brilliant tropical verdure to us
fresh from the barren seas : a luxuriant growth
pouring right down to the narrow merge of sand,
where stretched the long line of graceful cocoanut-
palms, casting dark shadows on the clear water.
We rounded the point of San Antonio with its pic-
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56 The Cruise of the Falcon.
turesque fort, and sailed into the smooth waters of
the beautiful bay of Bahia. At seven p.m. our chain
once more rattled out through the hawse-pipe, and we
came to an anchor off the city.
We were twenty-one days and seven hours out from
San Vincente, a much shorter voyage than we had
anticipated. The distance by the route we had taken
is 2538 nautical miles.
As soon as we had stowed our canvas, we brought
out from hidden places, white shirts, necjcties, clothes,
boots, and other articles of civilization, — for our sea
costume was barbaric in the extreme, — and awaited
the authorities.
Two boats soon came off ; first, the pratique boat.
The doctor was satisfied with our hygiene and gave
us permission to land, as far as his department was
concerned. Then came off the steam-launch of the
captain of the port. The officer informed us that we
were anchored in a prohibited spot, and must move
farther in.
And now for the first time we experienced that
universal courtesy which so pleased us in all the
authorities we had dealings with in Brazilian and
indeed in all other South American ports.
As we were flying the blue ensign, man-of-war
rights were granted to us ; the captain of the port gave
us permission to anchor in the man-of-war ground,
and to land with our boats at the naval landing-stage
at the arsenal.
As the wind had now dropped, he very kindly
towed us up to our anchorage with his launch, and
offered to give us every assistance in his power. The
above privileges are of the greatest value in a
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 5 7
Brazilian port, where the custom regulations for
merchant-vessels are so strict. One cannot go off or
on one's vessel, if she be a merchantman, after eight
p.m., without a special permit from the custom-
house. Now, we had the privilege of rowing to and
fro at any hour ; we could leave our boat alone and
in safety at the arsenal steps. All we had to do
when coming off late at night was to call the sentry
at the arsenal gates to open them for us, telling him
the name of our vessel. Again, an insolent negro
guard is put on board every merchantman by the
custom-house. There he has to be fed, lodged,
bribed, and made much of generally, during the vessel's
stay in the port — a horrible nuisance which we were
also excused, by virtue of our blue ensign.
Ours was a nice snug anchorage in four fathoms,
under the antique fortress of Fort la Mar, a round,
grey mass built on a rocky islet. We were close to
the beach and could see all the busy life of the
Praya from our decks.
A picturesque place is Bahia as viewed from the
sea.' First along the shore is the Citade Baxa, or
lower town, the more ancient portion of the city.
Here are the lofty stone houses of the old colonists,
with antique churches of massive and quaint archi-
tecture. For Bahia is one of the most antique cities
of South America. It was founded in 1511, and is
now the second city of Brazil.
The lower city is built on a narrow strip of land
along the water, at the foot of a steep, black cliff some
240 feet high. One great street stretches along the
beach, known as the Praya — it is four miles long, with
a tramway running down its length. This Praya
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58 The Cruise of the Falcon.
presents a very animated appearance. For here are
the huge stores, magazines, and warehouses, and along
the quays are moored the native craft, the queerest
iniaginable, with their gaudy paint, lofty sterns, strange
rig, and semi-nude negro crews. Here are to be seen
the giant blacks with glistening ebon skin, rolling
down the bales of cotton, coffee, and sugar, and other
produce of this rich province. At first sight, this is
evidently one of the busy marts of the world. Along
the front of the Praya is a fruit, vegetable, and odds-
and-ends market, where at their stalls sit the fattest
and most voluble of negresses, with the gaudiest and
most voluminous of turbans on their heads, and a
rather liberal display of their large charms.
A hot place is this Praya, and somewhat inodorous
at times, for the fresh breezes are kept off by the
steep cliff. Here the English sailor, too, rolls about
red and sweating, drinking the vilest of new white
rum, and eating half-rotten fruit under the tropic
sun, till of a sudden a sickness and a dizziness comes
upon him, and in a terribly short time he falls,
another victim of the invisible fiend Yellow Jack.
Behind this Praya, as I said, rises a cliff, but not
a smooth, bare cliff, but rugged, with quaint houses
let into it, and rich vegetation filling each crevice.
Most striking is the contrast between the two. For
the houses are antique with gloomy arches, dingy,
many of them, as if they had stood through centuries
of London smoke, whereas the vegetation — who can
describe its freshness, its marvellous exuberance of
youth ! its fairy-like beauty ! Graceful palms, luscious-
leaved bananas, wonderful creepers of rainbow colours,
overflow the cliff, forming a luxuriant curtain of
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 59
tropical verdure, flower and fruit, depending from
thjs upper to the lower city.
On the summit of this cliff is a plain on which is
built the Citade Alta, or upper city, with its crowded
narrow streets (nearly each with its tramway line), its
broad squares, and the cathedral.
On either side of the town, on the hill-sides over-
looking the bay, are the most beautiful suburbs
imaginable, with palatial villas nestling in gardens of
$uch colour and aroma as intoxicate the senses. No
wonder if the Brazilian is voluptuous and lazy, living
as he does in such a Paradise as this.
A steep road winds from the Praya to the upper
city, but there is also another means of ascent pre-
pared for an indolent population that will not walk ten
yards if such exertion can be avoided. From the sea
an imposing-looking tower is observable, built from
the lower town to the upper, along the cliff-side, and
terminating in a broad platform on the summit. This
is the elevator, ox parafusa as it is here called, being
merely one of our now common hydraulic hotel-lifts
on a large scale. A smart Yankee hit upon this
speculation, and it has proved successful. Any
invention that can save a Bahian a ten-minutes walk
must pay well. The network of tramways in every
Brazilian city is almost incredible ; even small villages
inland, like S. Amaro, have their tramcars ; and fine
dividends the directors show too.
There is in Bahia another means of locomotion
which I have never seen elsewhere. Nothing less
than the good old-fashioned sedan chair of Queen
Anne's day, carried by two stout negroes. The
model is exactly that of the queer box in which our
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6o The Crtctse of the Falcon.
great grandmothers were wont to be carried to rout
and ball. Such is Bahia, a city of about 230,000
inhabitants, of whom nearly three-quarters are
mulattoes, native negroes, and Africans, the remainder
Brazilians, Portuguese, and foreigners. On the morn-
ing after our arrival we prepared to go on shore to
stretch our legs after our long confinement.
I can thoroughly understand the exuberant spirits
of the Jack-ashore that seem such madness to the
landsman. I am sure we Falcons felt something of
the kind tingling in our veins as we landed at Bahia,
clean shaved, polished up, clothed, with the novelty
of streets and human faces around. Even before we
landed we gambled as to who should treat the rest of
the crew to the luxury of bottled beer on shore.
Two boats moving off to us gave occasion for the
above bet. A white man steered each boat ; each
white man wore a broad straw hat and white clothes,
and each urged on his negro crew to greater exertions.
It was an exciting race, and we were not only the
judges of it, but also the goal and prize, for these were
the boats of two rival ship-chandlers who had observed
us from afar off. Some of us backed Port-light, others
selected Yellow-face — for thus we termed the rivals
in the excitement of the race, the difference of com-
plexion of the two coxswains being the sole way
of distinguishing the boats. Port-light was alongside
first — won in a canter — so we surrendered to him with-
out parley, and invited him on board, while we drew
out a list of our wants. The yellow-faced Portuguese
gentleman retired in discomfiture.
Port-light — so called by us on account of his fresher
English complexion, not of any special suspicious
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 6 1
rubicundity— sat in our cabin and told us all the
news. He told us that Brazilians on shore were asking
whether " all the English milords are going mad, that
they have taken to travelling about in these cockle-
shells ? " for the Red Gauntlet put in here lately, and
she, though much larger than the Falcon^ is, after all,
a not very big vessel.
There was, anyhow, one " Milord Ingles " in this
port whose yacht cannot be called a cockleshell. On
entering the bay we had observed a fine vessel' flying
the white ensign, and now Mr. Wilson informed us
she was the Wanderer y Mr. Lambert's noble schooner,
that I had last seen fitting out at Southampton. I
little expected to meet her next out here.
So here we were at last on shore in South America,
with plenty to see and wonder at. I am afraid the
first thing we did was to enter Freitas and Wilson's
store, and have dealings with sundry bottles with
triangular red hieroglyphics on them. And now that
I am on the subject, let me strongly recommend this
firm of ship-chandlers to any yachts that may come
into Bahia. I shall not soon forget the courtesy and
kindness they showed us.
A ship-chandler's store in a foreign port offers no
small opportunity for the study of character, for it
is the loafing-place of the merchant captains. Here
they sit, drink, and gossip through half the tropic
day. Quite at home, sitting astride his chair, is the
Yankee skipper of the smart schooner, with broad
Panama hat and long cigar. That bluff gentleman,
who sports a white helmet, is the captain of the
fine English barque that came in yesterday. The
jovial German in the straw hat is the master of the
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62 The Cruise of the Falcon.
ship Frdulein from Hamburg. Somewhat savouring of
shop IS their talk as a rule. Freights are discussed ;
the best longitude to cross the equator in ; and the
law is laid down with a thump of a horny hand on the
counter. Then crews are disparagingly overhauled,
somewhat in the manner of women talking over the
much vexed subject of domestic servants.
We were introduced to an old American skipper
with a snowy goatee, who hailed from Virginia, a
tough old sea-dog of the Spanish Main and the
Southern Seas. He had been a whaler in the great
South Pacific, and was full of strange yarns of islands
where one white lives alone — a king of savages. He
was a walking pilot directory, and gave us a long
string of directions as to where we should go and
what we should do. Said he, " I guess you should
go to the Solomons ; they are fine. If you dew,
don't land at such or such an island, for they air a
queer people thar ; theyM treat you just as you would
a fat bullock as walked on board your vessel. No !
you visit the little bit of an island just south of that,
so-and-so isle. Now ! you mind me ; keep the big
hut in the east bay in one with a tall palm you'll
see all by itself on a, hill, east by south,, and steer
bold in and bring up in four fathoms, two cables off
the shore. There you land ; tell the people you want
the white man — say Jake. They^U know then that
youVe smelt him out, and they'll fetch him for you ;
for he is shy, is Jake. Rather queer ; can't abear a
white man ; ain't accustomed to him. When you
see him, say you know me, and he'll show you round
that thar island, I bet. You'll have high old times.
Shouldn't wonder as you^ll stay there altogether,
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 63
you^U like it so much. I guess you'll take half-a-
dozen wives each and fix ; and they air fine women,
young men. For that there island is a paradise ;
what with the fruit and the flowers and — the women ;
whitish, too, whiter than I am, with long black hair.
Why, Lord! see Jake sitting under his palm-tree
smoking all day, while his wives do all the work there
is to do — do it willingly too, singing all the time, not
like them darned sailors we were talking of just
now."
We start for an expedition to the upper town.
We take our tickets for the elevator, and enter a half-
dark sort of wild-beast cage, where we sit down
beside several of the gorgeous fat negresses, for the
production of which Bahia is celebrated, and a few
dark gentlemen smoking huge Bahia cigars. A
strong and not delectable aroma pervades the cage,
which strikes me as being somehow familiar, and
seems in some strange way to call up reminiscences
of my innocent childhood long ago. I have it — it is
castor oil ! The machinery of the elevator is evi-
dently lubricated with this horror ot my youth. The
pretty tree from whose berries this useful drug is
extracted grows in great profusion in Brazil ; and
this oil is here the cheapest of all lubricators, and is
therefore extensively used for this purpose.
At last our smooth, well-castor-oiled journey is
completed, and the cage stops suddenly. We effect
our exit and find ourselves on a platform en the sum-
mit of the cliff, an extensive square open on the sea
side, and surrounded by lofty hotels and houses on
the other three sides. We pause awhile by the railing
on the edge of the precipice to admire the marvellous
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64 The Cruise of the Falcon.
scene that stretches before us. The cliff with its
curtain of tropic verdure falls perpendicularly from
our feet. Below are the roof-tops, the narrow streets
of the lower town, the busy Praya, the shipping;
and then beyond, a great, blue inland sea, with
islands of waving palms and dense mangoes scattered
over it, a sea indented with many a beautiful sandy
bay, and with many a forest-clad promontory jutting
out, noisy with the cry of parrots, and bright with
many jewel-winged birds. On the further side stretch
ranges of great purple mountains, scarce visible even
in this clear air, for the distance of them.
And many a great river is seen pouring in from
the inner lands, and many towns and picturesque
whaling villages are scattered here and there round
the wonderful coast, which is one ever-changing
tropic garden. For this is the world-renowned Re-
concava of Bahia, surely one of the wonders of the
world. A bay seven miles broad at its mouth, then
opening out into this land-locked sea of more than
one hundred miles in circumference, where all the
fleets of the world could find safe anchorage, free
from any danger, and opening out with its many
tributary rivers one of the richest regions of Brazil,
that wonderful country of tropical prodigality — z. gulf
which seems as if formed by nature to be the em-
porium of the universe. All these shores are famous
for the production of tobacco ; for Bahia is the great
tobacco port of Brazil, just as Rio Janeiro is the coffee,
and Pernambuco the sugar port.
Interesting it is for a stranger from the old world
to stroll for the first time through the Citade Alta of
Bahia ; the streets are narrow, some of the houses are
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I'he Cruise of the Falcon. 65
of antique architecture, built of solid stone, the gloomy
mansions of the old merchant-princes of the land.
The more modern are plastered, gaudily painted,
pseudo-classic and Byzantine gingerbread — which,
however, harmonize well with the brilliant air and
vegetation. Most of the buildings here are five
stories high, thus utterly differing from the patio'dy
one-storied, flat-roofed houses in the cities of the
Spanish people to the south.
A busy life, too, throngs these narrow streets,
tramways rattle down the principal thoroughfares, a
mongrel crowd of black and white and yellow jostles
and jabbers. Towards evening, it is the custom for
the women to come out on the balconies to enjoy the
fresh breeze that then springs up. Up and down a
long street, at every balcony, up to the fifth story,
they hang over — mulatto and negro belles, in orange,
green, white, scarlet, every gaudy colour, fanning,
flirting, laughing, chattering vigorously. Above the
shrill scream of the tram-whistle rises their shriller
Babel ; a bewildering pandemonium of extreme light
and sound and colour and motion, mellowed slightly
as a rule by an all-pervading, mysterious, heavy
odour.
There is not in Brazil that prejudice of colour
which distinguishes our own ex-slave colonies. The
negro here is on an equality with the white as soon
as he becomes a free man, not only in the eyes of the
law but of society.
A very easy time some of these darkies seem to
have here, enjoying life amazingly. Many of them
have every outward appearance of prosperity, but of
course we must remember that a negro will spend his
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66 The Cruise of the Falcon.
all on finery. In the cafds is to be seen the coloured
swell, a self-satisfied, pompous giant, with stove-
pipe hat, glossy and new, black coat and trousers, the
smallest patent leather boots he can manage to
squeeze his clumsy feet into, white waistcoat, half an
acre of snowy shirt-front, huge studs, and a watch
riding to a fathom of gold cable. Not to be hum-
bugged by the waiter is our gentleman either. If
there be any delay in the bringing of his absinthe, he
will very demonstratively hurry up the menial. Truly
he is a man and a brother, a very brother of brothers,
only just acknowledged as such, and so expecting to
be treated as a sort of prodigal returned to the human
family, and ready to enjoy his fatted calf.
Now that we have found our way into a caff, let us
have a dip into the local papers. The slave question
is evidently the topic of the day, and all the illustrated
papers have rather feeble, lithographed caricatures
on the subject. Slavery is doomed in Brazil. The
present generation of slaves will be the last : all
children born of slave mothers since 1871 are freed
after serving an apprenticeship of twenty-one years.
This method of gradual emancipation is not enough
for the abolitionist party. It is averred that the
clauses of the Act of Congress are not properly
observed, and never can be ; that it is easy to falsify
a child's age; that in the remote districts no one
pays any attention to the Act.
Bahia is a great slave province, an enormous num-
ber of freed blacks also occupy the country, and the
way in which they enjoy their new liberty is not
encouraging to the well-wishers of the empire.
The African in Brazil refuses to work at all, as
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The Cruise of (he Falcon. 67
soon as he becomes a freeman ; there is no pinching
necessity to compel him in such a land as this. He
retires to the forests, builds him a hut of palm-leaves,
and lives contentedly, in a state of barbarism, on
manioc and bananas, for under this benignant climate
a sufficiency wherewith to live like an animal is easily
obtained in return for a very small modicum of
labour.
There are communities of runaway slaves in the
dense forests, who live in this way, herding together
for protection against their hunters. They generally
successfully resist the troops that are sent against
them, but it is said are peaceable enough if left un-
molested. The good old plantation days are doomed
in this last stronghold of the peculiar institution, and
how and where to procure coolie labour is the problem
of the day for the statesmen of Brazil.
On the morrow Arnaud and myself took tram to a
certain ancient convent, whose nuns are famous for
their skill in the manufacture of feather flowers. All
manner of precautions are taken to keep the male
sex from intruding on these gentle recluses. We
were not admitted within the precincts at all, but had
to stand outside a stoutly-grated window, and hold
parley through it with the caged inmates. Indeed,
one grating was not deemed a sufficient barrier between
them and the outer world. The wall was about seven
feet thick, and there was a double grating in the
recess, one at each side, so that a partition seven feet
deep was between us — an unnecessary precaution, a
biting sarcasm, I should imagine, to the poor nuns,
for in carnal attractions they were sadly, hopelessly
deficient They passed the flowers through the
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68 The Cruise of the Falcon,
gratings to us in long-handed ladles. Very beautiful
some of these flowers were, of metallic-lustred,rainbow-
hued feathers of humming-bird and parrot. Very keen
at a bargain were the ladies ; they jabbered and
wrangled and pushed each other aside in the excite-
ment of their rivalry. It was an unpleasing sight, so
we purchased a few flowers and departed.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 69
CHAPTER V.
During our stay in this port we organized several
pleasant expeditions up country ; but to describe all
these would swell this work to a size far greater than
I mean to trouble my readers with. I should like to
tell you of the pretty village of Rio Vermilio, where
the fresh trade-wind blows full on the shore, driving
the great Atlantic seas till they break grandly on the
rocky l)each, scattering showers of spray over the
bending cocoanut-palms, whose leaves glisten like
diamonds with the salt crystals.
I should like to narrate, too, a five-days trip of
Arnaud and myself, when we crossed the bay, steamed
up a river through jungle and forest, then progressed
higher still in a negro dug-out to the little town of
St. Amaro ; how on the muddy banks the pink cray-
fish gambolled ; and how the branches of the man-
groves were thick with oysters hanging like fruit;
and how from St. Amaro we rode across fifty
miles of roadless country to Faira St. Anna, now by
the palatial mansion of some rich sugar-planter, sur-
rounded by its slave village and sloping hills of
waving cane, and now through virgin forest, where
the tall palms rose high above the lesser growth of
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70 The Cruise of the Falcon.
trees, linked by intricate creepers, lianas, and con-
volvuli. I should like to linger over the description
of the wonderfully-plumaged birds — parrot, humming-
bird, canary, and a hundred others ; of the fruits
growing wild and in profusion in the woods — pine-
apples, bananas, mango, jachas, bread-fruit, and the
rest. I should like to tell you of the people we met,
the half-naked slaves, standing outside their huts, with
their curious little, pot-bellied, wholly-naked children ;
A BAHIAN TRADER.
of the proud planter, with poncho and massive silver
spurs, galloping across his lands : how we journeyed
on from Faira St. Anna to Cachoeira by train through
plantations of sago and coffee, and thence by steamer
again down a broad river to the Reconcava. But all
this would fill a volume by itself.
There are some quaint features of the Brazilian water-
scape, however, that I must dwell upon — the native
craft. Nothing is more curious in the way of ship-
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TIte Cruise of the Falcon. 71
building than the trading-vessel that brings the pro-
duce of the interior down the rivers to Bahia. Imagine
a huge, clumsy, barge-like construction, with a gigantic
excrescence of a poop rising aft, something like that
of a man-of-war of Henry the Eighth's reign. One
slight, very lofty mast is stepped well forward, which
supports a large main -sail. This mast is not stayed,
and bends nearly double when the wind is fresh, but
seldom breaks. Before this mast another shorter one
is stepped, on which a square sail is set, from which a
bowline is carried to a perpendicular bowsprit. It is
a quaint rig, but serviceable, and these boats are
exceedingly handy.
But the Brazilian catamaran is a still more wonder-
ful specimen of naval construction. It is a mere raft
of rough logs, with one slight mast and a triangular
sail ; a wooden plank is dropped through the middle
of it, when going to windward, as a centre board ; a
little platform is built on the deck, on which the stock
of cassava flour and other necessaries for the crew are
kept dry, for every sea of course washes over the rest
of the strange little vessel. It is steered with an oar.
Everything about a catamaran is of the roughest and
clumsiest description. It looks as impossible a thing
to go to sea in as a wash-tub would, and yet you will
see these rafts, with their two or three naked negroes,
far out of sight of land on the bro^d Atlantic. In
this absurdly frail-looking craft voyages of many
hundreds of miles are undertaken. It sails with
amazing speed, goes well to windward, can be safely
beached through a heavy surf, and is in fact a very
paradox of boats.
A very pleasant time we spent at Bahia. We were
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72 The Cruise of the Falcon.
made members of the Eaglish club, and received
almost too much hospitality at the hands of our jovial
fellow-countrymen who are settled here.
Having been now a fortnight in port, we once more
prepared for sea. We refilled our rum barrel with
white rum, laid in a stock of pine-apples, yams, and
other vegetables; and on the 6th of November
weighed our anchor and sailed out of the Reconcava.
Salvoes of crackers and rockets, and the tolling of
manifold bells from all parts of the city, seemed to be
bidding us a farewell as we dropped slowly down the
smooth bay.
. In Bahia every day of the year seems to be ^ fiesta^
and dedicated to some saint or other ; keeping a
saint's day here implies a terrible waste of fireworks,
and clanging of church bells. All day long, for they
do not even await the shades of night, the rockets
ascend. There is no place in the world like Bahia for
these amusements. Far out to sea you know when
you are approaching this port by the sound and the
blaze of the worship of its inhabitants. It is called
Bahia dosTodos os Santos — the bay of All Saints — of
all of them with a vengeance. It is the most religious
and most vicious city of religious and vicious Brazil.
The eve of our departure there stood forth an omen
in the sky, which, said the sailors on shore, is but rarely
seen, and only when some terrible hurricane is immi-
nent. Inside the thin crescent of the moon was one
solitary, bright star, the only one in the heavens. It
was a curious appearance ; but it seemed to me not
likely to be connected with terrestrial storm.
Our next port was to be Rio de Janeiro, the beau-
tiful capital of this empire. We had fresh winds
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The Cruise of the Falcon. T2>
from the E. to N.E. and so completed the voyage in
four days and twenty hours. We carried our spin-
naker and gaff-topsail nearly all the time. At 5.36
p.m., the 6th of November, we were outside the Re-
concava, off Point San Antonio. By midday, the 7th
of November, we had logged 116 miles; the 8th of
November we made 174 miles ; the 9th of November
152 miles ; the lothof November 167 miles ; the nth
of November 164 miles. It was glorious, sunny
weather, and bracing and pleasant was the fresh
Atlantic breeze, after the rather debilitating climate
of Bahia.
The second night out would have seemed to some
pilot of old as full of alarming portents. The mariner
at times does encounter such nights, weird and awe-
inspiring, that fill his breast with vague, superstitious
terror as he keeps his midnight watches. It was an
exceedingly dark night and still ; the long ocean
swell rolled on smoothly, only at rare intervals break-
ing into phosphorescent spray. The air was hot and
stifling as before storm. The clouds that passed over-
head were utterly black and assumed fantastic shapes.
Arnaud recognized Gambetta's head, and a fiend
riding across the heavens on a black horse, in the
slowly-floating masses of vapour. It seemed at times
as if the whole sky was full of uneasy spirits, fixing
up everything ready for a good old hurricane. The
moon only appeared at intervals through rifts in the
cloud. It was surrounded by a beautiful triple halo
of green, yellow, and pink circles. In the middle
watch the sky cleared somewhat, and Arnaud and
myself became the amazed spectators of several most
remarkable phenomena, meteoric or electric — I can-
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74 The Cruise of the Falcon.
not be certain which. We saw first in the midst of a
cloud an appearance like that of a great shell burst-
ing. It illuminated the whole cloud and the sea for
a moment, and its explosion was accompanied with a
dull thud. Again we observed several meteors that
sailed across the sky like rockets, with bright tails of
fire, and then burst. A mysterious night this on the
warm tropic sea, and ominous of tempest, which,
however, did not overtake us.
On the fourth night out, we kept a sharp look-out
for Cape Frio, in whose neighbourhood we knew our-
selves to be. There is a lighthouse on this point
with a powerful light ; we made it out about two a.m.
As we neared the cape the thermometer fell rapidly,
till we really felt quite cold for the first time since
we had left England. This sudden fall of the tem-
perature is always experienced near Cape Frio, hence
its name, the Cold Cape. I believe the phenomenon
is attributed to the presence of some oceanic current
of cold water which comes to the surface hereabouts.
This cape is also famous for the furious squalls that
sweep down from it seawards.
When daylight came we discerned land once more
on the starboard bov^ — a distant range of blue moun-
tains, which we recognized from their sharp spire-
like peaks to be the Organ Mountains, which lie to
the back of the Bay of Rio. On approaching the
entrance of the gulf the water shallowed and became
light -green in colour ; the sea, as is not uncommon
on this bar, was coming in in heavy breaking rollers,
which would have proved dangerous to many a
yacht of the Falcon's tonnage, that I know of We
heard that a heavy pampero had been blowing for
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 75
three or four days to the south of Rio, hence the
exceptionally disturbed condition of the sea when we
arrived.
Who can describe the grandeur of the gates of the
Bay of Rio, and the wonderful beauty of the bay
itself? I thought nothing could be so beautiful as
the Reconcava of Bahia ; and, lo ! here is a gulf that
transcends all one's wildest dreams of the magni-
ficence of tropical scenery. Not here are the gently
sloping hills of the Reconcava. The entrance of this
bay is between stupendous and fantastically-serrated
mountains. Steep and forbidding domes of granite
fall sheer into the boiling surf. The aspect of this
coast from the sea is grand and terrible in the ex-
treme ; but once within the bay, all changes. One
moment we were running before a cool, strong breeze,
rolling heavily in the steep seas, the next moment
we had passed between two walls of rock — we had
entered the inland sea. Immediately the water fell
smooth as glass — the wind died away, and the
bracing sea-breeze was changed for the sultry atmo-
sphere of the tropic harbour. We came to an anchor
instde the island and fortress of Villegagnon.
What a scene was there round us, what a variety of
beautiful form and colour ! To g\w^ any adequate
description of this bay is quite impossible. It is as
extensive as the Reconcava of Bahia, and is studded
with the most beautiful islands, whose beaches are
lined with cocoanuts and stately palms. All round
the bay rise the stupendous mountains ; some covered
with gorgeous-coloured forests, others of barren
crags and lowering precipice. And there stretching
far along the shore is the empire-city, Rio Janeiro —
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76 The Cruise of the Falcon.
the queen of South America, lying at the foot of an
amphitheatre of great mountains. There is the huge
granite crag of the Sugar-loaf, seeming ready to fall
down on the suburbs at any moment. There is the
Gavia, a square-headed mass of rock with a flat top
like Table Mountain ; there the Tajuca and the forest-
co\jered Cocovado, with its springs of sweet water.
And all round the inland sea are little sheltered
bays, the most beautiful imaginable, with beaches of
silver-sand, and wonderful tropical forests covering the
mountain sides, where the guava and mango grow in
wild profusion, and there are islands in these bays
too, like little gardens of Eden.
We came to an anchor at 1.30 p.m., November i ith,
and went on shore as soon as we had received pra-
tique. At Penheiro and Tront's, our ship-chandlers,
we learnt all the news of the port, and found that our.
old friend the Wanderer yacht was here.
Our first stroll through the city gave us a very
favourable impression of it ; we were evidently in a
civilized and luxurious capital, where we could recreate
and relax very pleasantly for a few days.
Rio Janeiro is a fine city of about 500,000 inhabi-
tants, and is thus much larger than Bahia ; it is also
much " whiter " than Bahia ; the negoes here are not
in so overwhelming a majority as in the former city.
Tramways of course are everywhere ; gas and
tramways are the specialities of Rio ; no town in the
world is so well lit. Far beyond the city, up to the
mountain-tops, through country lanes, are the tram-
metals laid and the lamps planted. Far out to sea
is the city visible at night by the great glare of it.
Five minutes after landing, instinct led us to the
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The Cruise of the Falcon. yj
establishment of Jimmy Graham, the well-known
Yankee barman. A smart man is Graham ; as you
enter his place the first thing in the morning, un-
certain as to what your eye-opener shall be, do not,
if you be a wise man, tax your brains on the subject,
Jimmy knows what will fix you up better than you
do ; simply say, —
" Graham, I want you to prescribe for me."
" Take a seat," he will reply. He will look at your
face for a moment or so with his shrewd eye, then a
gleam of intelligence will flit over his expressive face.
He has diagnosed your case.
" Wall, I guess I can fix you up what you want,"
and forthwith he will arrange for you some iced
delectable poison, long or short as the case may be,
which you find will exactly suit your disease and
make a new man of you. But if you are that rare
bird a wise man, you will forswear strong drinks in
this climate, and patronize Jimmy only for the prawn
curries he knows how to prepare, and the delicate
rock oysters from the bay.
This first evening we went up to dine at the Hotel
Vista Allegre, which is out of the close city, on the
healthy hill-side. Thither we travelled partly by train
and partly up a very steep, inclined plane in a car
which is hoisted by a chain, just like the railway from
Lyons to the Croix Rousse.
It was now night, and the aspect of the city and
the bay from the elevation at which we were, was
very strange and beautiful. Steep ravines and hill-
sides sloped from our feet to the city, mountains were
around us, and all were lit by myriads of gas-jets.
The crags were covered with the rich vegetation of
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78 The Cruise of the Falcon.
the tropics. Tall palms towered above the houses.
A most fairy-like view, a wonderful contrast of city-
streets and nature at her grandest.
Rio is a lively town enough after dull Bahia, for
here we have theatres, an opera-house, an alcazar,
concert-gardens like those of Paris, and other dissi-
pations. The Rua Ovidor is the Bond Street of Rio.
Carriages are prohibited from traversing it after dark ;
for it is then that the Brazilian ladies promenade this
narrow thoroughfare to djo their shopping. Ten p.m.
is the fashionable hour.
The street-sights of this city are quaint enough,
some of them. The niggers live a very out-of-door
life, and one thus acquires a very fair insight into the
habits of their private life, or rather what would be
the private life in the case of a white man. The negro
barber carries on his profession in the middle of the
street ; when a customer comes, he simply sets him
down on the pavement, if no other seat be at hand,
and lathers his chin and shaves away, undisturbed by
the crowd of little niggers that generally admiringly
surround the artist.
Here sitting in a long string on the kerb-stone of a
crowded street are negro slaves weaving stra>y hats ;
listen to them ; that barbaric tongue cannot be Por-
tuguese ; no, it is an African dialect. For these are
not Creoles of Brazil like most of the slaves here, but
Africans, men who have once known freedom.
I had noticed that one of these half-naked hat-
weavers was always treated with great respect by his
fellows. He was a giant in size and had evidently
been a man of uncommon strength, but he was now
of great age, his back was bent, and his curly wool
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 79
was white as snow. I was informed that he had once
been one of the greatest kings of Africa, and that all
Africans from his part of that continent, even over here
in America, after years of slavery, observe the same
form of etiquette when approaching him as they per-
force did in the old times, when he was every inch a
king, and the life and death of his subjects were in
his hands. Barbarous indeed these savage courtiers
must be thus to still revere their prince and be loyal
to him, knowing well that there is not the slightest
chance of his evef again recovering his freedom and
his kingdom, and being in a position to reward them
for their fidelity. For it is not only by mere courtesy
that they show their devotion, it is customary for
them to quarrel among themselves as to who shall
complete the aged sovereign's daily hat- weaving task,
when their younger and nimbler fingers have com-
pleted their own. You can observe this amiable
squabble among the poor fellows every afternoon, the
old king, sitting the while blinking sleepily, taking
no interest in the proceedings, apathetic beneath the
burdens of his many years, and now, I should
imagine, hardly remembering and regretting those
days when —
" At furious speed he rode
Along the Niger's bank.*'
Two days after our arrival at Rio, we got up anchor
and sailed up the bay to the island of Paqueta, a
distance of about ten miles. This is a pretty little,
wooded, hilly island, with a population of about 1700.
A friend of Jerdein, an ex-royal-mail oflScer, and now
superintendent of that company in Brazil, was living
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8o The Cruise of the Falcon,
here with his family, so we came to an anchor off his
house, and remained there until we sailed for the
River Plate. A beautiful spot it was, nestling
among the stately palms and bamboos, tamarinds
and almonds. And very pleasant it was for us after
our semi-savage life to see once more in Mr. May's
hospitable home the faces of English ladies and
English children.
A lovely little corner of earth to pass a lazy time
in is this islet of Paqueta. Here we are, for instance,
in the evening sitting in Mr. May's verandah, puffing
at our post-prandial cigars. The too short tropic
dusk has passed, and it is night ; all round us is the
tropic garden of rare fruits and palms and creepers.
The garden terminates on a sandy beach, on which
break, with gentle plashes, the small waves of the
sheltered bay ; along the sand is a fringe of cocoanut-
trees, waving their great leaves gently in the evening
breeze. A promontory of round boulders projects, a
dark mass, into the water gleaming in silver arrows
under the moon. Beyond the rocky islets and palmed
promontories, across the broad bay is seen, looming
dark against the sky, the opposite coast, with the
mountains of the interior still further back, vague and
misty.
The faint lights of the charcoal-burners' fires are
seen here and there on the far-off hill-sides, where
the virgin forests are ; and to return once more to
the foreground, there within a stone^s throw rides the
stately old Falcon at anchor. Now add to this the
still, warm night-air, heavy with the odour of flowers
and fruits and spices, the flight of bats, the perpetual
shrill cries of cicadas, the sad splash of the waves on
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 8 1
the rocks, and you have the very surroundings for an
indolent man who loves to ponder silently over his
cigar and coffee, or rather not even to ponder at all,
but sink into that riverie qui ne pense it rien^ his mind
intoxicated with the beauty of all that fervid yet lazy
nature around him.
But after all there are few lotos-eaters at Paqueta.
Certain perspiring black savages, with a rag round the
waist as their sole clothing, here pass anything but a
life oi dolcefar niettte. Above the cry of cicada, and
the moaning of sea, and the rustling of palm-leaves, all
through the long night, from the time that the sun
sinks into the fiery crimson clouds that crown the
Organ Mountains to when he rises again from the
Atlantic — you can hear a strange and melancholy
song rising in wild bursts on the night-air ; a bar-
baric, monotonous and sad chorus, such as Israelite
bondsmen might have sung long ago in Egypt. And
this too is a chorus of bondsmen, of African slaves.
For there are lime-works on Paqueta Island, and by
night and day, unceasingly, the naked blacks toil
on in batches. The night-watchers are obliged to
sing this chorus at intervals, so that their master
in his bed, if he chance to awake, may know that
they are toiling and watching, and not falling to sleep
with weariness.
This lime is made from the shells of the oysters
that so, thickly cover every rock in the Gulf of Rio.
About Paqueta can be seen daily a regular squadron
of quaint native craft, manned by naked slaves,
dredging for the bivalves.
The process is a very primitive one, involving a
great deal of labour and very little proportionate
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82 The Cruise of the Falcon.
results. The slave has a long bamboo with a small
cradle fitted to one end ; this he scrapes along the
rocky bottom, raising each time only a handful or so
of shells, I should imagine.
I will not inflict on my readers a description of the
lions of Rio and its neighbourhood, which of course
we did: and what city on earth has such marvellous
scenery in its immediate neighbourhood? Why, even
in the narrow streets of the city itself you come
suddenly on the most lovely little oases of tropic
vegetation. Here, for instance, is a gloomy and ugly
old mansion in a squalid lane. It has some preten-
sions to architecture, and it is the palace of some
merchant-prince, maybe, but it is as dingy and un-
interesting-looking as are the houses near Fitzroy
Square. You are passing it, when suddenly the
portal of it is opened, and there is revealed a glimpse
of Paradise itself. Under that dark door as a frame
is seen a bit of bright azure sky above, and below, a
garden ; but what a garden, what colour, what form !
among the dazzling creepers and bushes, stone fauns
and nymphs disport themselves, and fountains splash
on cool marble and tesselated pavements. And down
the great garden is a drive through an avenue of
immense palms, smooth and straight as columns,
with their leaves joining overhead like the aisle of
a cathedral of giants. It is a glimpse into fairyland ;
then the portal closes, and we might almost be in
dingy London, save for the sky above and the niggers
around.
So pleasant was found our stay here that it was
not till forty days had passed unnoticed by, that we
sailed from Rio. We came in on November nth
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 83
and left on December 21st. It was the midsummer
here south of the line, but the heat on the Brazilian
coast is rarely oppressive. Our thermometer in the
cabin only once, as far as I remember, registered more
than 95°. We found lots to do. Sometimes in the
city, sometimes making pleasant excursions into the
interior, sometimes organizing cruises an4 picnics
with the Falcon in the bay, and, best of all to my
mind, sailing about in the dinghy among the beautiful
islands near Paqueta. Those little exploring expedi-
tions were most delightful. Often I wished that some
of my friends in the Temple could have been suddenly
transported out of dingy Fleet Street and its Novem-
ber fogs and drizzle to join us in some of them.
There is a little archipelago of islands near Paqueta,
all beautiful ; some large, with pleasant villages of
peaceable mulatto folk ; others uninhabited, but over-
flowing with a glorious vegetation ; others bare, mere
boulders rising from the clear water with, maybe, a
solitary cactus growing on the summit. Nowhere on
earth is there an inland water so adapted for a cruise
in a small boat. One could travel on for months,
and anchor each night off some new picturesque
island, or in some new bay, so extensive is this great
winding gulf.
Here is the log of one of these little cruises : — One
glorious morning I put the mast and sail in the
dinghy, provisioned her with a keg of water, a bottle
of wine, bread, oranges, pipe, tobacco, matches, and
sketching materials, and started for a solitary sail.
First I circumnavigated Paqueta, keeping close to the
shore, where the palms overhang the water, steering
among great boulders. These boulders that rise out
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84 The Cruise of the Falcon.
of the Gulf of Rio are of interest to the geologist ;
they are smoothly rounded, by the action of water,
into a dome shape, and nearly all of them are split
down the middle as by a wedge, so that they present
the appearance of so many episcopal mitres. Then
passing several islets, I reached one — an uninhabited
little paradise which I named Cocoanut Island, from
the multitude of those graceful trees that lined its
shores — and beached the dinghy in a little sandy cove.
If that island could be transported as it is to Kew
Gardens, it would be one of the sights of Europe.
It was hilly, and about a mile or rather more in cir-
cumference, and covered with a dense viegetation.
Mangoes and tamarinds, and the most gorgeous flowers
grew on its slopes, all bound together by intricate
network of lianas and purple-flowered convolvuli.
Brilliant-plumaged humming-birds, and rainbow-hued
butterflies seemed to be the sole inhabitants. From
the summit of the islet one looked over the broad
many-islanded bay and the far mountains, glowing
under the blue tropic vault. In order to acquire an
appetite for my picnic, I treated myself to a plenti-
ful feast of oysters. All the rocks were covered
with these up to high-water mark ; small and deli-
cate they were too ; so I waded about in the tepid
water, cutting them off* in clusters with my knife.
Then came lunch, for which the mangoes on the
island provided a dessert. Then off* again to explore
further islets, all uninhabited, till I felt like a sort
of Robinson Crusoe of half-a-dozen isles instead of
one ; and the sun was low and it was time to beat
back against the fresh sea-breeze to where the Falcon
lay at anchor by the stately row of palms.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 85
One of the things to be done by the visitor to Rio
is Petropolis, a model highland village founded by
the Emperor of the Brazils, and in the midst of which
he has built to himself a summer pleasure-palace.
Thither one fine morning we proceeded, and a plea-
sant journey it was. First, a steamer took us across
the bay to a point where a train awaited us. After
but a short voyage on the line, we again changed
our mode of conveyance, and entered one of the
six coaches that were intended to carry the pas-
sengers across the mountains to the imperial village.
In single file they slowly ascended the pass — a fine
road in sharp zigzags, reminding one of '*Les fichelles "
of the Mont Cenis — but the view around was some-
what different ; not the grey crags and the snows and
sombre pines of the Alps on this tropical mountain-
pass. On either side of us were palms, tree-ferns,
lianas, and all manner of unknown plants and
flowers, with colours such as no orthodox plants
should have, stolen from the minerals. Great leaves
of burnished copper strewed the ground, and the
green, and silvers, and yellows, and reds of the
twining creepers and flowers were as of molten and
incandescent metals. The parrots, humming-birds
butterflies, and beetles, gaudy-hued as they were,
were not more so than this glorious vegetation they
inhabited. From the summit of the pass the view
was grand in the extreme. A vast expanse of
country lay beneath us like a plan. The mountains
sloped down from our feet to a dark, wooded plain ;
beyond that was all the Bay of Rio, with its islands
and mountains, the Sugar-loaf guarding the entrance ;
and then still farther the Atlantic horizon-line.
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86 The Cruise of the Falcon,
Descending again, we soon reached our destination,
the luxurious village nestling in a hollow of the forest-
clad hills. We rattled down the main street by which
flows a babbling river shaded by avenues of willowsi
and dismounting, introduced ourselves to Mr. Mills
of the comfortable English hotel, who forthwith pro-
posed to mix for us the refreshing cocktail of the
New World, the while dinner was preparing.
Petropolis is built in the centre of a large imperial
estate, the emperor, who is, as every one knows, not
only one of the most hard-working monarchs in the
world, but one of the most active in every scheme of
benevolence, is, if nowhere else, popular in Petro-
polis. Some years ago, some pseudo- philanthropist
sent over to Rio a large batch of German colonists.
When the unfortunates landed, they found they were
not wanted, there was nothing for them to do ; they
lay about the quays, living on garbage, till yellow
fever thinned their ranks woefully. They would
probably all have perished had not the emperor taken
up the matter. He transported them en masse to his
highland estate, where the cooler climate permits the
white man to work without danger in the fields, and
founded Petropolis. And now it stands a model vil-
lage in which there is no sordid house, no poverty,
all is clean, tidy, and prosperous-looking. For some
miles round where the forest is cleared, are the little
farms of the happy and contented people. And so
as you ride along the well-made roads that traverse
the little colony, you perceive about you everywhere
comfortable-looking Teutons with blue eyes and yel-
low hair, and well-dressed children going to school,
and comely matrons knitting at cottage-doors, as in
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 87
Europe, instead of the half-naked negroes and the
barbarism of the slave plantations which surround
this little oasis of liberty. And now in addition to
all this, a further cause of prosperity has come to the
village of Dom Pedro Secundo, for a blessing seems to
be on the place. The cool and healthy air has in-
duced many of the wealthy citizens of Rio to resort
here during the summer months, when the yellow
fever is hanging about the hot city. It is rapidly
becoming quite a fashionable little place, and several
good hotels have sprung up around the imperial
summer palace.
We stayed at Mill's two days, visited the virgin
forest — another thing we had to do — in a downpour of
rain ; I think we were done more than the forest was,
for we did not appreciate its beauties under the de-
pressing circumstances, though we had brought some
cana with us, wherewith to dilute the rain. Besides,
the virgin forest was a fraud, though a beautiful
one, for the vegetation of it was in no wise more
magnificent than that of most portions of the neigh-
bouring country, though these gave themselves no
high-sounding titles. From Petropolis we took coach
to Entre Rios, a drive of about fifty miles, along a
very well-kept road. The coach-mules were splendid
animals, and carried us on in grand style, past the
coffee plantations and the uncleared forests. From
Entre Rios, we travelled about on the Dom Pedro
Railway in rather an unmeaning way, from one un-
interesting place to another. At the hotel at Juiz
la Fora, by the way, they will ^\v^ you a bottle of
Chambertin for eighteenpence, at least there is a
gold-lettered label on the bottle proclaiming it to be
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88 The Cruise of the Falcon,
of that vintage. It reminded me of a choice claret I
once purchased at Swan's sale at Cambridge, as a
freshman. Not even after I disguised it by mulling
and converting it into cup, could I persuade any of
my friends to touch it after the first experience. Ulti-
mately it became the salvation of my staircase. For
after a preliminary experiment on an objectionable
bed-maker, it was used to propitiate (?) duns withal.
On the I Sth of December we sailed from delight-
ful Paqueta to our old berth off Rio, under Fort
Villegagnon. The weather was now becoming oppres-
sive — ninety-five in the shade, with no cool nights as
a relief. The calm water in the harbour began to
stink horribly ; and far from odorous was the vege-
table refuse that lay about the markets— so yellow
Jack found his opportunity, and there were five vessels
in the harbour, with the ominous yellow flag flying
at their main. Our boy, like most sailors, was very
inclined to become rather wild when he got on shore,
so Jerdein preached a most edifying sermon to him,
told him how loafers on shore fell suddenly sick and
died in horrible convulsions, with their legs twisted
round their necks in knots, the results of green rum
under a vertical sun ; and to make the homily still
more impressive, he pointed out to him the five o'clock
dead-boat, which was as usual carrying its ghastly
load of corpses to be buried on the other side of the
bay. So terrible was the picture drawn by Jerdein
that Arthur did not ask for any more shore-leave in
Rio.
While we were at anchor here the emperor came
off to the Falcon in the Wanderer's launch ; he was
interested in our cruise, and, as I understand, intended
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The Cruise cf the Falcon. 89
to honour us with a visit. Unfortunately we were all
on shore at the time, so he merely steamed round us,
and remarked that we must be very uncomfortable
and very foolish to wander about the oceans in such
a cockleshell. If I were an emperor I think I should
be of the same opinion, and prefer something a good
deal bigger if I cruised at all ; but after all, would it
be half so enjoyable ? — maybe not.
For several days in succession, during our stay, a
violent squall arose every afternoon in the bay. The
weather would wax sultrier and sultrier from sunrise
till about three p.m., when suddenly a mass of black
cloud would sweep over the sky, pouring down rain
in such torrents as only tropical clouds can, accom-
panied by thunder and lightning. These squalls blew
with very great force, lashing the bay into a mass
of foam. On two, occasions we had to put down two
anchors, with fifty fathoms on each, to prevent driving.
One day during the squall two large vessels near us
fouled each other in consequence of the anchors of one
dragging. Signals of distress were hoisted, and two
men-of-war's boats' crews were sent to their assist-
ance. After considerable damage had been incurred
by both they were cleared. This is the old-fashioned
Rio weather. Once this daily storm was so regular in
its coming, that it was customary when one made an
appointment with another to say, " I will meet you
after or before the storm," as the case might be. But
of late years the climate of Rio has changed con-
siderably, as has that of every part of the world it
seems, more or less ; and the three p.m. storm is not
as punctual as was his wont of old.
One of our crew here left us — Andrews — so we were
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90 The Cruise of the Falcon.
now rather under-manned, and determined to pick
up some one else in the Plate ; one who was some-
what more of a sailor than he — if possible.
It was now about time for us to leave Rio ; two of
us were down with slight attacks of fever, and we all
felt as if the fresh winds of the Atlantic would be
beneficial as a change.
We had made the acquaintance of the officers of
the SS. Norseman in Rio, the telegraph-vessel of the
Anglo-Brazilian Telegraph Company. She was bound
about this time for Maldonado, in Uruguay, and the
captain kindly offered, if he met us out at sea, to give
us a tow if we were in want of one. Maldonado Bay,
he told us was a pleasant spot, with lots of sport on
shore, and in every way preferable to Flores Island
as a place to spend our quarantine in ; for into
quarantine we were certain to be thrust as soon as
we touched at any Uruguayan or Argentine port
after leaving Rio. The River Plate people have the
greatest dread of yellow fever, their countries lie
outside of the usual limits of this pest, but they have
a vivid reminiscence of the fearful epidemic at Buenos
Ayres ten years ago, when the whole city was put
into rigid quarantine, all business was at a standstill,
and the horrors of a mediaeval plague, such as that
of 1 lorence, were experienced to the full in the
crowded South American city; no less than a thou-
sand people perishmg a day, for several weeks.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 91
CHAPTER VI.
We sailed out of the harbour on December the 21st ;
the pestilential city looking very beautiful from the
sea in the early morning.
There was but little wind, and we progressed but
slowly. It happened that the Norseman steamed out
the same day, so ten hours after our departure she
came up with us. The captain stopped his vessel
and repeated his invitation as to the tow ; adding, as
a further inducement, that we should thus reach
Maldonado by Christmas Day, and we could all pass
that festive season together. We gladly accepted his
offer, so the Norseman lowered a boat, and we soon
got a tow-line to each of her quarters. It was as
well that we did get this tow, for now that Andrews
had left us we were only four on board. Of these
Jerdein was laid up below with slight fever ; I was
far from well recovering from the same ; and the boy
had also been suffering from a sort of bilious fever for
some days. Only one of us was in robust health —
Arnaud ; he never was ill, on any pretext whatever ;
but unfortunately, too, he was the very one who was
absolutely useless on board ; no power on earth could
ever make anything approaching to a sailor of my
genial friend.
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92 The Cruise of the Falcon.
Under these circumstances Captain Lacy sent on
board of us one of his black sailors to lend a hand at
steering. He and* the boy took one watch during
Jerdein^s illness, Arnaud and myself the other.
Steering a small vessel when towing fast requires
some care, so, as usual under similar circumstances,
I had to do all the steering in my watches. Arnaud,
however, was not allowed to be idle. He was* kept
very constantly at the pumps, for we were towing so
fast through the short seas — ten knots an hour at
times — that much water came on board, and found its
way below through the hatch of the sail-room.
We had not been towing long before we parted
one of the warps : the steamer stopped and lowered
a boat with another. This boat was manned by
Krumen, who kept time to their oars as they came
off with a queer dirge-like song. The words of this
song were delightfully simple, consisting of a constant
repetition of the monosyllable Bo. The Kruman has
many, and to him beautiful songs ; but they are all
about this word Bo and nothing else, except one, a
marriage hymn, which I am told sings Ba-Ba-Ba, Ba-
Ba, and so on ; this latter seems to have a sort of
unkind ring in it, like a chorus of envious Benedicks
casting ridicule on the happy spoony ones.
Some of my readers may not know what Krumen
are. Well, they are a superior race of black men
who inhabit a certain strip along the West Coast of
Africa. They are all boatmen by profession, and are
engaged by European vessels for service in the un-
healthy oil-rivers, and other parts where work in the
sun is perilous for the white man. Excellent fellows
they are, with a far more intellectual cast of counte-
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 93
nance than any of the West Indian or Brazilian
blacks. These they despise and will hold no com-
munion with, for the Kruman boasts that he is not
only a freeman, but the descendant of freemen. He
is certainly a superior being to the ordinary negro,
faithful and honest. The Krumen in their native
land live in a very fairly civilized manner.
Every Kruman who has made a certain number
of voyages becomes a chief or head-man ; the others>
when shipped on a vessel, have to pay a certain per-
centage of their wages to the heads on their return
home. When a vessel ships a considerable crew of
these men, a head-man is taken as well — such is the
case on board the Norseman. He is feared and
respected by the rest, no insubordination is shown
before him, and whenever a Kruman has to be chas-
tised it is the head-man who inflicts the punishment.
Curious names these jolly blacks take to them-
selves. On the Nqfseman we had Silver, Maintop,
Ropeyarn, Jibboom, and Zulu ; this latter was so called
because he was taken to London to impersonate one
of the Zulus exhibited at the Aquarium. He there
enjoyed himself amazingly, and still receives letters
from an Aquarium barmaid. Zulu was the man sent
on board of us by Captain Lacy. Rather funny that
we should ship an Aquarium Farini-Zulu as a hand
on the Falcon I
As the sea increased a good deal on our second day
out, it became necessary for the Norseman to diminish
her speed to eight knots, so as to avoid straining
the yacht, which towed very heavily. We had now
crossed Capricorn, and were once more out of the
tropics. The difference of latitude soon made itself
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94 The Cruise of the Falcon,
apparent. The wind blew from the south, cold and
bracing after its passage from Antarctic seas. It was
a very great change after sultry Rio, and we found
pea-jackets necessary for the first time.
The distance that the Norseman proposed tb tow
us was above 900 miles. The experiences of the
voyage were such as to make me resolve never
under any circumstances to undertake anything of
the kind again. The Norse^nan had been compelled
to go easy, and stop so often in order to enable us to
put fresh chafing-gear on the hawsers, and to get a
new tow-line on board when one was carried away, an
incident which occurred thrice, so violent were the
sudden jerks at times, that on the 24th of December,
Christmas Eve, we were still so far from Maldonado,
as to render all chance of eating our Christmas dinner
in port very remote.
This day a nasty short sea was running, that was
continually filling our deck fore and aft. The vessel
pitched about with extraordinary quickness, showers
of spray came over the bows constantly, half-drowning
the man at the tiller, who alone stayed on deck.
Everybody and everything was wet through. Poor
Zulu, unaccustomed to the cold and wet, looked very
miserable indeed when his turn used to come round
to steer. No doubt he regretted his native wilds in
the well-warmed London Aquarium, where he was
wont to raise his terrific Farini war-cry, and hurl his
assegai into the targets, surrounded by admiring
pale-face damsels. The poor fellow was laid up for
three days after his experience of Falcon life.
About two p.m. I was at the tiller : a confused sea
was running at the time, so that it was very difficult
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 95
to steer the vessel. And now a serious accident that
I had for a long time foreseen as probable occurred.
I must explain that the Falcon's bowsprit runs straight
over the top of her stem amidships, and that the
forestay leads to the bowsprit gammoning-iron — an
exceptionally strong one of course — instead of to the
stem, as is the usual method. I do not know whose
idea this arrangement was, but it is obviously a very
bad one ; not only is that most important support to
the mast, the forestay, fitted in an insecure fashion,
but the bowsprit cannot be taken wholly on board,
as the mainmast is in the way of so doing. Thus we
had a good many feet of bowsprit overboard when
the heel of it was jammed up against the mast. The
result was, after one heavier pitch than usual,' and a
shower of water that half-blinded me and took away
my breath for a moment, I saw with consternation
that all the main rigging and shrouds were flying about
quite slack. I knew in a moment what had occurred —
one of the hawsers had got under the bowsprit close
to the bow and wrenched the gammoning-iron and
stout iron band right out of the stem, thus carrying
away our forestay as well. I called all hands on
deck, and hailed the Norseman, which at once stopped
and lowered a boat to lend us assistance. We found
that a large piece had been wrenched off our stem in
addition to other damage : so we were in a fine pickle.
The bowsprit itself was not broken.
But a moretserious mishap was now to follow,
which all but put a termination to the Falcon's cruise
altogether, by sending her to the bottom of the South
Atlantic. The Norseman had stopped. Being to
windward we drifted on to her. Seeing that we were
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96 The Cruise of the Falcon,
getting too near, we shouted to the officer in charge
to take a few revolutions ahead occasionally so as to
keep clear of us. As soon as he attempted to do so it
was found that one of the tow-lines had got round her
screw, so that she could not move, but lay helplessly
rolling about in the seas. In a few moments we had
drifted right down on her, and we were foul of each
other. Our rigging then got entangled in the stock
of her anchor, and thus having secured us, she locked
us in her embrace, and, like a great sea-monster as
she is, deliberately proceeded to crush us to pieces.
She was rolling heavily at the time, and with every
roll the stock of her great anchor and her iron sides
came down on us with pitiless weight First our
main-mast was nearly wrenched out of us. Then the
great black mass of the ocean steamer leaned over us^
bending in our davits, and crushing our beautiful
dinghy into matchwood. Then another great lurch,
and the stock of her starboard anchor coming down
between our port-shrouds carried away all the ratlines,
about ten feet of bulwark, and threatened to stave in
our decks. Then our bowsprit went. We were now
right across her bows, a most perilous situation ; for
over the bows of a telegraph-vessel hangs an enor-
mous iron machine, weighing many tons, used I believe,
for winding in the electric cable. This rose and fell
above us like a battering-ram, as the steamer pitched
in the great seas. It was indeed a " bad quarter of
an hour ** for us that ; not a merry way of passing
Christmas Eve. We tried our best to disentangle our
rigging from her anchors, and shove clear of her, a
difficult and even dangerous undertaking. One plucky
Kruman was very nearly crushed while helping us.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 97
At last, almost miraculously, we fell clear of her,
and setting a bit of sail drifted some half-mile away
to leeward, where the poor old Falcon lay a dismal
and dishevelled wreck upon the waters. The remains
of our dinghy oars and other articles were floating
away, visible at times on the summit of the waves, a
pitiable sight. But it was no time for lamentation; it
was important to repair the damage as far as possible
without delay. On inspection we rejoiced to find
that to all appearance only our upper works had
suffered, the body of the vessel was as sound as ever.
We passed our chain through the two hawse-pipes,
set up our forestay to it as well as we could, and got
everything shipshape again.
In the meantime the Norseman managed to get the
hawser clear of her screw, so steaming down to us
she took us once more in tow.
A most uncomfortable time we had of it this
Christmas Eve. The wind and sea had risen con-
siderably, and it was very dark. I rem.ember well
what curious work it was steering that night by the
rising and falling stern-light of the heavily-pitching
steamer. The motion of the Falcon was at the time
the most violently quick I have ever experienced.
We were constantly jumped off our feet while steering.
At regular intervals the vessel would take five or six
terribly rapid rolls in succession, rolling her gunwales
under, and filling her decks right up with water,
heeling to such an angle as made even capsizing seem
quite a possible contingency at times ; then she
would pitch as violently as she had rolled, and we
expected to see the main-mast chucked out over her
bow at any moment. Water-breakers and other
VOL. I. H
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98 The Cruise of the Falcon.
articles broke adrift, floated on deck, and flew about
wildly with the frantic leaps of the little craft. Down
in the cabin the water was a foot over the flooring,
and washing over the bunks, drenching everything,
notwithstanding that some one was always at the
pump. Every one was wet, cold, and miserable, and
bruised, too, with the banging about, against which
no sea-legs availed. It was rather an anxious time,
for had the weather been a little worse the steamer
would have been obliged to slip us, no agreeable
prospect in our half-wrecked state. So passed our
merry Christmas Eve.
But when Christmas Day broke there came a
change. It was a lovely morning, bright and bracing ;
the wind had moderated considerably ; the sea, too,
had gone down ; so the Norseman increased her speed
to make up for lost time.
Towards dinner-time the steamer stopped, and
Captain Lacy sent a boat with a fresh hawser to us,
and an invitation to partake of the orthodox roast
beef and plum-pudding on board of his vessel. He
lent us two Madagascar negroes to steer the Falcon
in the meanwhile. After the wet and cold of the last
few days we thoroughly enjoyed our Christmas
dinner in the comfortable saloon of the steamer. In
the evening we returned to the Falcon once more to
renew our duties. Throughout the night the sea was
smooth, and all went well.
On the morning of the 26th of December we per-
ceived the loom of land on our starboard side, the
coast of Uruguay. On nearing it we were enabled to
discern what manner of country this was that we had
now reached. The climate, the colour of the clear
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 99
sky, and the aspect of the vegetation showed us that
we had indeed left the tropics. Very different all
appeared after torrid Rio, one thousand miles to the
northward. It was a low shore with sandy dunes
and hills of no great altitude in the background ; a
desert-looking country where thistles and aloes
seemed especially to thrive. Of ill-repute too is all
this wild coast from here to the Brazilian frontier,
and a terror to mariners. The currents of the ocean
hereabouts are powerful and inconstant. There are
few landmarks, and disasters to vessels are frequent.
On the shore among the surf one can perceive the
skeletons of many ill-fated ships, as one coasts along
the dreary sand-banks. And woe betide the mariners
who are wrecked on this inhospitable land; for the
only inhabitants of it are wild gauchos, professional
and skilful wreckers when not employed in the almost
as lucrative pursuit of pillaging and ravaging all over
their native country under the banner of one or the
other of those rival guerilla chieftains who are ever
contesting who shall next be the chief magistrate and
arch-robber of poor revolutionary Uruguay.
These land sharks are bold in the extreme in
their malpractices, and of course commit all sorts of
atrocities with absolute impunity, for the Govern-
ment cannot be troubledlwith inquiry into such little
peccadilloes as wrecking and piracy. These brave
gauchos must be humoured, or they will join the
other side in politics, and lend their lances to a rival
cut-throat.
A British barque went on shore near Maldonado
not long ago and broke up. The sailors managed to
save some of their property, and formed a little camp
H 2
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lOO The Cruise of the Falcon.
on the beach. Knowing the character of the coast,
they had not forgotten to bring muskets with them.
The gauchos came down like so many vultures, all
mounted ; each with his big knife at his back, his
lasso, and elects fixed to his saddle to which to
attach the expected spoil. They managed to steal
a good deal, notwithstanding the vigilance of the
sailors.
And very smartly they did it too, as the following
story will illustrate.
One sailor is sitting half-asleep on his sea-chest.
A gaucho comes up and taps him on the back.
" Bueno, Johnny ; bueno, Johnny/^
" If you are not off, I will send a bullet into you,"
says Jack.
" Bueno, Johnny ; bueno ; hasta manana till to-
morrow;" and off skulks the gaucho to his horse,
which he mounts. With a sardonic smile he takes
off his hat to Jack, bids him farewell, and digging
his spurs into the flanks of his wiry little horse, leans
over his neck and is off at full gallop over the short
grass of the sandy plains.
At the first stride of the horse, to Jack's intense
surprise his box is wrenched violently from under
him. He jumps up, rubs his eyes, and before he can
recover his senses he sees liis property, rolling and
bumping away over the sand-hills at the heels of the
gaucho's steed ; for this clever gentleman had managed
to make one end of his lasso fast to the handle
of Jack's box while engaged in conversation with
him.
At about sunset we were in sight of our port. As
we approached the land, the whole vessel was en-
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The Cruise of the Falcon. loi
veloped in a dense cloud of dragon-flies, which com-
pletely covered our rigging.
That very common phenomenon in the River Plate,
a mirage, was observable along the whole coast.
All the inland hills seemed to have turned upside
down ; and these floated at some height above the
plain, midway in a band of lovely pink sky.
We rounded Pt. Este, and sailing inside Lobos
Island, famous for its many seals, entered Maldonado
Bay. Not a very lively place this little harbour
seemed, nor in any way too much protected, should
the wind choose to blow hard from seaward. It is
but a shallow bay surrounded by sand-banks, with
one little island called Goriti, overgrown with wild
asparagus, and inhabited by rabbits alone, in the
centre of it. It was here that H.M.S. Agamemnony
Nelson's old vessel, was lost. The town or village of
Maldonado is situated a few miles from the shore and
is hidden from it by the sand-hills. Only a few little
houses are to be seen on the beach at the extremity
of the bay. Not a very prepossessing spot, but
Captain Lacy promised us plenty of sport on shore
by the lagunas which lie beyond the sand-hills.
" Partridges, snipes, teat, geese, &c., are to be found
here in amazing numbers, at timeSy' he said.
What a great virtue there is in your at times I it is
as good as your if. We did not come across any
very extraordinary sport here ; but buoyed up with
wild hopes by that at timeSy we sportsmen were wont
to toil bravely on.
Just before sunset we perceived a dismasted vessel
far out to sea, a derelict evidently, for she had no
signals flying. Unfortunately a mist came on just
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I02 The Cruise of the Falcon,
then, or the Norseman would have steamed after her
and brought her in. A wind arose in the night that
carried her far away before morning.
The Norseman put to sea again the day after our
arrival, and proceeded towards Chuy, as the sub-
marine cable required repairing somewhere there*
abouts. She did not return for two days. This
time we spent in repairing as much as possible the
damage the collision had inflicted on us. We natu-
rally were desirous of going on shore and having a
look at the country, but of course could not do so
until we had received pratique. We waited twelve
hours, and no one came off to us. There was no sign
of life anywhere : there were two small craft anchored
in the bay, but no one was on board of them ; the
shore might be a bit of the central Sahara for loneli-
ness. Twenty-four hours passed, and still no one.
At last a solitary horseman appeared on the summit
of a sand-hill and looked at us. Hope revived in our
breasts; but after remaining a few seconds only, he
galloped away again. Forty-eight hours passed away,
and we waxed impatient. We hoisted all manner of
signals, but no one paid the slightest attention to
them. Where were all the Maldonadans ? Had
they gone away revolutionizing } or seeing from afar
that imposing brass gun of ours, had they taken the
peaceable Falcon for a pirate, and betaken themselves
in terror to the inner wilds? These two days a
south-west wind blew fresh and squally right inte^»
the bay, and brought into it a sea that made us far
from comfortable at our anchorage.
Waxing impatient, I took the collapsible dinghy,
and went off to the desert islet of Goriti to shoot
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 103
rabbits. Here I made the acquaintance of the only
inhabitant, a sociable horse, who followed me about
everywhere ; walked on when I walked on, sat down
when I sat down, and standing on the beach gave
me a plaintive farewell neigh when I ultimately rowed
off. Of rabbits I saw no traces save their habitations.
They too, I suppose, had gone revolutionizing. There
were several old iron cannons lying about on the
island, for it was strongly fortified in the days of
the Spanish, when there was a viceroyalty of Buenos
Ayres.
On the third day the Norseman came in again ; and
at last the inhabitants took notice of us, for a boat
came off with a gentleman most gorgeously uniformed
and much sabred, who politely told us that he was
the captain of the port. Hearing we had come from
Rio, he gave us two days* quarantine.
"But," I suggested, "we have already been two
days here."
" Ah ! indeed ! " he replied ; " then it is well ; your
quarantine is over."
We went on shore, scampered up the sand-hills, and
were surprised, on reaching their summit, to behold
on the other side a wild but pleasant-looking country ;
an undulating Pampas of grass and thistles, aloes
and cactus, lay between us and the distant hills,
diversified with little lakes, bogs, and sandy wastes.
In the foreground was Maldonado town, a small con-
gregation of white- washed, flat-roofed houses, with a
street or two, in which it seemed as if no man ever
walked. We were introduced to the aristocracy of
the place. First to a store-keeper, who is also a
commandant, or something of the kind ; next to a
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I04 The Cruise of the Falcon.
portly major-general in the Uruguayan army, who is
also a butcher ; and to an ex-high-admiral of the
Uruguayan fleet, who is willing to pilot us to Monte-
video in consideration of a small gratuity. Truly a
republican country ! The latter grandee is an ex-
admiral at present because his politics are not those
of the party now in power. For with a change in
the Government of a South American republic every
one goes out of office — admirals, generals, telegraph
clerks, policemen, crossing-sweepers — to make room
for the friends of the new presidents, and the friends
of those friends, and the friends of all their sisters^
their cousins, and their aunts, and so on. One rises
and falls pretty rapidly out here — admiral to-day,
ordinary pilot to-morrow.
We stayed two days more in Maldonado Bay, and
had some pleasant rides over the country with the
officers of the Norseman : but I cannot say that we
shot quite so many partridges, snipes, &c., as we anti-
cipated. However, we had a very good time of it,
thanks to our friends on the Norseman and on shore.
On December the 31st we got up anchor, and sailed
for Montevideo, which is about seventy miles from
Maldonado. We took the ex-admiral with us as
pilot ; not that a pilot was really necessary, but the
old gentleman seemed anxious to come with us, and
was very companionable and jovial in disposition.
We were now in the estuary of the Rio de la Plata,
for the limit of the river and the ocean is held to be
a line drawn between Maldonado and Cabo San
Antonio, 1 50 miles across. At Montevideo the river
is sixty-four miles wide. At Buenos Ayres, 210 miles
higher up than Maldonado, it is thirty-four miles
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 105
wide. All this gigantic estuary is obstructed by
shoals and sand-banks ; the depth of water is hardly
anywhere upwards of three fathoms. Luckily the
bottom is generally of soft mud : hence there is little
risk to a vessel that runs ashore unless the weather
be bad. But, unfortunately, bad weather is very
common indeed off the River Plate. It is a region of
storms and extraordinary electric disturbance. The
pampero, the storm-wind from the Pampas, is fre-
quent, and blows with great violence; often being,
indeed, a true hurricane in its fury. The ocean tides
do not affect to any great extent the waters of the
River Plate, but strong sea- winds cause it to rise con-
siderably. The water is fresh almost as far as Monte-
video, where, indeed, it is occasionally drunk on the
vessels in the roads, so slightly brackish it is. A
desolate waste of choppy, muddy waves, flowing be-
tween dark mud-banks, with here and there little
floating islands of lilies, and trees drifting seawards
from the great rivers of the interior ; such is the
mouth of the La Plata, the widest river of the world ;
and the one which, with the exception of the Amazon,
discharges the greatest volume of water into the
ocean.
At daybreak on the ist of January we were in sight
of Montevideo. From afar off we observed that there
were many men-of-war of different nations and sizes
in the harbour and in the roads — some twenty, at
least. Furthest to seaward of all we perceived a
British squadron of five huge vessels at anchor.
These we soon recognized as the Bacckafite and the
four other men-of-war composing the flying squadron,
now bound on a voyage round the world with the
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io6 The Cruue of the Falcon.
two sons of the Prince of Wales. Montevideo pre-
sents a very pleasing appearance from the sea, looking
very much like an Eastern city with its whitewashed,
low, flat-roofed houses. Like an Eastern city, it
looked very clean and bright from a distance. We
afterwards found that, unlike an Eastern city, it
proved as clean and bright on closer inspection.
We came to an anchor well up the little bay which
answers as an apology for a harbour here — a very
poor harbour in bad weather, as we afterwards found
— and hoisted the yellow flag for the health-officer.
When that functionary came off, he expressed great
dissatisfaction at the conduct of his colleague in
Maldonado.
" Two days' quarantine is insufficient for a vessel
coming from Rio ; you must sail to Flores, and pass
three more days off that island before I can permit
you to land here."
But now a steam launch, with some other gorgeous
officer, came off; and hearing how matters stood;
took our part, and argued that in the case of so small
a vessel, with so few men on board, it was hardly
necessary to inflict the full allowance of quarantine.
After some parley the first doctor gave in, and we
were granted pratique, to our great delight, for three
days off Flores was not a pleasant prospect. Monte-
video was having a good time of it with all these
men-of-war in the roads, no fewer than nine of which
were British. Bull-fights, masked-balls, hells, and
other dissipations were not wanting to relieve the
mariner of his hard-earned cash. They told me that
there were frequently scxx) men-of-war's men and
marines on shore at a time.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 107
A walk through the streets and squares of the
capital of Uruguay soon showed us how very different
were these people that we were now among from the
Brazilians in every respect. No two cities could be
less alike than these two capitals of neighbouring
states. Not here the lofty houses of Rio, but clean
streets of one-storied glaring white houses, built in
the style of a Pompeian dwelling. A square, flat-
roofed building, with an open courtyard, or patio^ in
the centre, on to which all the rooms open ; a foun-
tain and a flower-garden in the patio ; towards the
street the windows, if any, small and heavily barred
with iron — such is the residence of a South American
Spaniard, a retiring sort of a dwelling, shutting itself
jealously from the outer world with a Mussulman-like
love of seclusion. The populace, too, how different
from that of a Brazilian city ! No negroes here, and
no ugly-looking Portuguese ; but handsome and dig-
nified Spaniards, with a good deal of Indian blood in
the veins of the lower orders of them. Cleanest of
cities is Montevideo, with straight streets cutting each
other at right angles in the American chess-board
fashion.
In the evening of New Year's Day we visited the
fine Plaza de rindependen9ia, where an excellent
military band was playing. Here we were enabled to
study the different orders of the populace. The ladies
floated by with stately Spanish walk, looking well in
their black silk dresses and mantillas ; but why will
every South American lady so besmear her face
with powder, however good her complexion be }
Officers of the army strutted by in gorgeous uniforms,
and with the clash of sabres on the pavement ; a
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io8 The Cruise of the Falcon.
motley crowd of the lower orders loafed about —
Basques, Italians, Greeks, and the native gauchos in
their barbaric but becoming costume. Here was a
group of British blue-jackets slightly overcome by
cana. The native soldiers were everywhere, dressed
in their hideous parody of Zouave uniforms. And
here were two of the Spanish bull-fighters in their
picturesque off-duty dress and pigtails ; smart, wiry,
neat-cut fellows they were, and rather foppish in their
general get up. The young native swells hung round
them admiringly, were proud of their acquaintance,
were delighted when allowed to sit at the same table
as the matador at a cafd and treat him to champagne
— in short, courted them and made much of them,
much in the same way as English gentlemen did prize-
fighters not so long back, and the young Roman
patrician the crack gladiators of his day when he
wanted to be considered as a fast man about town.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 109
CHAPTER VII.
The climate of the River Plate is exceedingly
changeable and trying. The day we came in it was
quite cold. The day before the thermometer regis-
tered 102° in the shade. When the south wind blows
from over the cold Antarctic seas the weather is
bracing and cool. But with the north wind coming
as it does from over thousands of leagues of parched
Pampas and tropical jungles, the atmosphere is hot,
dry, and oppressive as. that of North Africa when the
khamsin blows.
All skippers that have been unfortunately com-
pelled to put into Montevideo for repairs to their
vessels, anathematize it ; we were not exceptions to
this rule. A wretched German, who called himself a
ship's carpenter, undertook to repair the damages to
our stem and bulwarks. He not only made a mise-
rable job of it, but detained us seventeen days, and
finally presented us with a most exorbitant bill.
Never having been a witness of a bull-fight,
curiosity led me to visit the arena one Sunday.
It was a glorious, day — true River Plate weather —
that is, with a cloudless, pale blue and peculiarly
clear sky overhead. The clearness of the atmosphere
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1 lo The Cruise of the Falcon.
in this land of the Pampas is very remarkable, and it
causes the vault of the heavens to appear to be
much farther off and vaster than in other lands.
The stars, too, at night shine with an exceeding
brightness. They seem to be at a far greater
distance off than those over our hemisphere, and
one can see more of them, further up into the
heaven as it were, so pure is the sky ; stars behind
stars, archipelago behind archipelago of them, to
infinity.
On this day a great slaughter of bulls and horses
had been promised to the populace ; so the glaring
white streets that led out of the town to the amphi-
theatre were thronged with the thousands of pleasure-
seekers who were on their way to the cruel games.
It was like the road to the Derby without the rowdy-
ism. In carriages, trams, and on foot the crowds
poured on, while over the balconies of the houses
leaned the pretty Montevidean girls, fanning, and
laughing, and flirting as they looked down on the
human flood. We entered a tram-car — for of course,
being a South American city, Montevideo has scarce
a street down which the tramway-rails are not laid —
and drove some miles through the pretty suburbs of
the town, where nestling in lovely gardens are gaudy
villas of /j^«^(^-classic and Italian style, generally
painted outside in delicate tints of pink, yellow, and
blue, which suits the climate well enough. The
suburban houses of the native mode of construction
are one-storied, and all look as if the architect had
intended to build two stories, but had suddenly altered
his mind and stopped short when he had built up about
one-third of the second ; for the sort of battlement that
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 1 1 1
tops these flat-roofed mansions is cut into embrasures
that match the windows below, and appear to be
the commencement of the windows of the second
story. The trams of Montevideo are driven along
at a tremendous rate, and the mules and horses that
draw them are fine animals. On our way a rather
steep hill had to be mounted, and it became necessary
to put on another horse. But the tram did not stop
in order to effect this, nor slacken its rapid speed in
the least. It was a pretty operation. A man on a
wiry little horse was waiting at the foot of the hill.
To his saddle behind him was attached a coil of stout
rope, with a hook at its further end. When the tram
came up, he trotted alongside of it, cleverly dropped
his hook into an eye prepared for it on the left side
of the car, and away went his horse, leaning well
over as he tugged away sideways, as is the custom in
this land. At last we reached the amphitheatre, gay
with the flags of Uruguay and Spain.
We paid our dollar and a half for a sombra seat-
that is, one on the shady side — and entered the huge
structure. It was just the Roman amphitheatre over
again. Uncovered to the blue sky was the great
circus, with the flights of bare stone steps sloping
down to the arena, on which the common spectators
sat. And there, too, was one scarlet- draped box, in
the which sat a bloated grandee in bright uniform
and much be-medalled — president or great minister, I
know not which, with his sycophants around him ;
just as bloated emperor or consul sat in his purple-
draped box long ago, under as blue Italian skies,
while beneath him the gladiators fought to the death,
or Christians fed famishing lions. And no wit less
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1 1 2 The Cruise of the Falcon.
brutally savage was the spectacle, and no less cruel
and ready with the '^ pollice verso'' were the spectators
on this fine Sunday afternoon, in this civilized city of
Montevideo, in the year of grace 1880, than in the
Roman circus of 2000 years ago. There was a very
full house, and there was no small number of our
ruddy blue-jackets and marines among the sallow
Spaniards. I was pleased to see that, contrary to
my expectations, only two women were present, and
these were foreigners, and evident. y members of the
demi'tnonde. Constant communion with strangers has
possibly softened the manners of the women of this
branch of the Spanish race ; for it is certainly not the
thing in Montevideo for a lady to assist at a bull-
fight. But on the other hand, there were a great many
young children of both sexes present that had been
brought hither by their fathers, and the blood thirsty
little dears enjoyed themselves amazingly.
I had never seen a bull-fight before, and in my
ignorance imagined that there might be something
more in it than mere cruel brutality — some good sport
or display of skill. I do not know that such may not
be the case in Spain, but in Montevideo this amuse-
ment is merely the ordinary business of an abattoir
glorified by music and gay costumes, and a strong
spice of unnecessary cruelty. Danger to those en-
gaged in the fight is reduced to a minimum. After
waiting about half an hour there arose a maitial
fanfare of trumpets, a door opened, and there galloped
forth a picturesque procession. First rode the pro-
prietor in his black velvet dress, mounted on a fine
coal-black horse, then came the toreadors, picadors,
and matadors in the gaudy and beautiful costumes
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 113
peculiar to their respective duties ; and lastly came
four horses drawing a yoke : this to drag out the car-
cases of bulls and horses that were to be massacred
during the games.
Three times, to the lively strains of the band, this
procession galloped round the arena, and then went
out again ; the door closed, and there were left alone
in the centre two picadors on their horses, each with
his long lance, and a group of footmen with scarlet
cloaks over their arms, and the cruel little darts in
their hands. Then came a suspense and a pause in
the chatter from the stone steps for a few moments,
and quickly another door opened, and out rushed,
head down, a savage little bull of the Pampas, who
made it pretty lively for every one for a short time.
But between his wild rushing hither and thither,
the being dazed by the scarlet cloaks that were
thrown across his head, the loss of blood from lance
wounds, and the eight little darts that were sticking
in his flanks, the poor beast after a few minutes be-
came weak and showed disinclination to continue the
unequal combat. But this was not what was intended
by his cowardly foes — he must kill a horse or two
ere he be permitted to gasp out his life on the blood-
stained sand of the arena and be at peace — the people
wanted the smell of more gore, and the pleasant
spectacle of prolonged dying agonies before they
could let him go. It was now the duty of the pica-
dor to place the horse on which he was riding across
the path of the bull as much as possible, and no
longer to avoid him. It was a disgusting spectacle.
The picador himself, with his legs thickly padded
with lead and cloth, could suffer no injury from the
VOL. I. I
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1 14 The Cruise of the Falcon.
animal's horns — while his wretched horse had ban-
dages over his eyes, that he might not perceive the
infuriated bull that charged him, take alarm and run
away. Neither horse nor bull were quite up to the
scratch, for the former heard and trembled though
he could not see, and the latter was now weak and
faint. So we enjoyed the elevating spectacle of
attendants whipping up the poor horse, and others
stabbing and torturing the dying bull into one last
infuriated charge. Maddened by his tormentors, at
last he did charge ; the picador kept his horse broad-
side on to the attack, and loud cheers of bravo y toro!
saluted the bull as he ran his horns into the belly of
the poor animal, that then rushed wildly away, almost
unseating his rider in his agonized plunges, with his
bowels dragging over the ground as he went. The
bull had yet the horse of the other picador to dis-
embowel, or blind, or tear asunder in some other way,
before his turn came to die. He lay crouching in a
corner, with the blood pouring out of his nostrils with
every heavy gasp ; still at bay though, and ready to
stagger to his feet and defend himself on the ap-
proach of an enemy, only to fall again with half his
life gone out with the exertion. Then came up the
matador, with scarlet cloak on the left arm, and
rapier in the right hand. He came deliberately up
to the bull, and after a little dodging deftly run the
long steel into his brain, and the poor beast was free
at last. The work of the matador is the most merci-
ful to the bull, and the most dangerous to the man, of
the whole performance ; for when the bull, as often
happens, has still a good deal of life left in him, the
slightest divergence in the rapier-thrust might be
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 1 5
fatal to the unskilful swordsman. Seven bulls were
tortured and slain this fine Sunday afternoon, and
some fourteen horses, till the white sand was red and
reeking with the blood and entrails of the poor beasts.
When a horse was not killed outright by a bull —
only disembowelled, or with shoulder ripped up, or the
like — he was taken out, doctored and patched up, his
wounds sewn up and plastered over to stay the flow
of blood, and then he was brought on again half an
hour afterwards, weak and staggering, to face and be
ultimately killed by another bull.
During the course of the afternoon, one incident
gave great pleasure to the spectators. A savage little
yellow bull charged witii such fury that he tossed a
horse and picador clear into the air. The man fell,
half-stunned, with the horse on the top of his legs.
The bull then stood over them and commenced to
deliberately gore his prostrate enemies to death. It
was splendid sport for the people, and a loud cry of
bravoy tore I bravo, toro I went up ; no horror, no
sympathy for the wretched man was expressed on
any face of that large crowd of Spaniards — merely
fiendish delight in the horrible scene. The people
stood up and shrieked with frantic joy, and laughed
to see the cruel horns bury themselves in the soft flesh.
The picador was not killed, for his comrades diverted
the bull, and rescued him. I am sure that many
of the spectators looked on this as very unfair — they
had been defrauded of the best part of their enter-
tainment—how exciting to have seen a man slowly
gored into shreds ! During the progress of this
refined entertainment, I looked round at some of the
British blue-jackets and marines to discover by their
I 2
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1 1 6 The Cruise of the Falcon.
faces in what way they were impressed by the national
sports of Spain. These natives of the bleak northern
island were evidently too barbarous to appreciate a
bull-fight. I observed that they did not laugh, that
some looked pale and disgusted, and that there was
an expression on many a young marine's face of
wonder that such things could be in any civilized
city — a sort of perplexed look that said a good deal.
The blue-jackets did not talk much, but looked on
moodily and silently, with knit brows and compressed
lips. I overheard one big, burly, bearded fellow say to
his comrade, " D n me. Bill, I don't half like this.
Why can't they leave them poor beasties alone, and
make some of them yellow chaps with red blankets
strip and stand up and have a round or two like men?
That's more to my mind, it is." And to mine too, honest
Jack. Brutal our prize-ring was, no doubt ; but what
can be said of this torturing of the noblest of dumb
animals, that I have attempted to describe as I saw it
myself this day .?
Throughout our stay at Montevideo the weather
was abominable. Violent squalls occurred daily, and
it blew a gale of wind three days out of four — an
exceptional state of things in midsummer. We
rolled and pitched so much at our anchorage in this
unprotected port, that the carpenter was unable for
ten days at a stretch to get his stage alongside, in
order to fit on our new stem-post. Indeed, we were
occasionally running our bows right under in the
short, nasty seas. Nor was he able to effect the
repairs on deck during this time, for the wretched
fellow got sea- sick as soon as he stepped on board of
us. Thus it was not until the 20th of January that
we got all straight again.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 1 7
On the 2ist of January we weighed anchor at noon,
and proceeded out of the harbour under all plain
canvas to sail to Buenos Ayres. It is customary for
strangers to take a pilot from Montevideo to Buenos
Ayres, but we did not consider this necessary in the
case of a small vessel like ours. There was a fresh
E.S.E. wind blowing, so that we were enabled to set
our spinnaker, and kept up an average speed of seven
knots throughout the voyage. At ten p.m. we made
the Chico light-ship, and then, keeping the lead con-
stantly going, sailed over the flats in about three
fathoms of water, until, at seven a.m. on the morrow,
we reached the guard-ship, which is moored about
twelve miles or so from Buenos Ayres. From here •
we could see the long line of the houses of the city
and the vessels in the inner roads.
We hove-to off the guard-ship in order to await
the doctor's boat and obtain pratique before sailing
in to the town. Many large vessels were at anchor
around us, rolling heavily in the rough pea-soup-
coloured water, for no vessel of considerable draught
can approach nearer to the shore than this ; indeed,
none of our big men-of-war could come anywhere
near Argentine Waters. The royal mail steamers
have been known to ground even so far out as these
outer roads, as they are called. For where the vast
plains of the Pampas terminate in the sea, so gradual
is the incline that it is really difficult to say where
sea begins and land ends. The gnarled mangroves
grow far out into the water from the swampy shores.
So flat are these alluvial plains that a rise of one foot
of water only will overflow the land miles inland in
many places.
At ten we received pratique, and proceeded towards
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1 18 The Cruise of the Falcon.
the city. As we sailed in, the water very gradually
shoaled until we reached the inner roads where lay
a large number of vessels whose lighter draught
enabled them to come thus far in. We proceeded
still further, and came to an anchor in fourteen feet
of water off the Catalina Mole in the midst of a crowd
of lighters, shallow coasting schooners, river steamers,
and other small craft ; still, however, a considerable
distance from the shore. We got into our dinghy
and proceeded to sail towards the end of the pier. So
shallow became the water long ere we reached it,
that even our little boat bumped continually against
the bottom. For half a mile or more we sailed
through a large fleet of carts and horses ; for in this
extraordinary port of Buenos Ayres merchandize has
to be transhipped three times between the vessel,
fourteen miles out in the outer roads, and the railway
trucks on shore — from vessel to lighter, from lighter
to carts drawn by amphibious horses, and so to the
railway. A very unpleasant place to lay in is this
port, if it can be called such, of Buenos Ayres, whether
one be in the outer, inner, or small craft roads. For
this coast is quite open to the Atlantic on the south-
east, and when the wind blows hard from anywhere
near that quarter a very short, dangerous sea soon
rises on these shallow waters. The Argentine
Republic is very unfortunate in the matter of its ports ;
save far south, in Patagonia, where there is little if any
commerce, there is no harbour worthy of the name.
Just to the south of the city of Buenos Ayres a small
river runs into the sea — the Riachuelo. This has
been dredged sufficiently to admit small craft. It is
the head-quarters of the Italian river schooners, which
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 19
are here built and fitted out. A large town has now
sprung up around this port — the Boca, inhabited
almost exclusively by Italians and Greeks, a rather
cut-throat place by reputation.
North of Buenos Ayres, and some ten miles from it,
is another river, the Lujan, one of the many channels
of the intricate delta of the River Plate. Near one of
its mouths is the little town of San Fernando. Here
the Argentine Government has constructed docks,
and here are the naval stores and workshops. It is
a sort of Argentine Chatham ; but unfortunately the
entrance of the river is impeded, like all others here-
abouts, by a bar, and there are times when the water
is so low that a vessel drawing only eight feet has to
wait weeks before it can cross it. Once within the
river there is plenty of water. To lie off Buenos
A yres was, of course, impossible, so we had to choose
between these two harbours for the -F^/i:<7« during our
stay here. We decided on the latter, or rather on the
River Tigre, which is a branch of the Lujan. On its
banks, and close to the Tigre railway-station, is the
boat-house of the English rowing club. Our friends
recommended us to drop our anchor close to it, as
being a quiet spot where we would be unmolested,
and where we would have the advantages of trains
running into the city at short intervals.
We lay at anchor off the Catalina Mole during the
night, tossing about very uncomfortably in the short
seas. On the morrow, the 23rd of January, we
weighed anchor at one p.m., and proceeded in charge
of a pilot to the River Tigre. A fresh wind
was blowing from the E. by S, and we sailed rapidly
along the low coeists. The pilot kept the lead con-
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I20 The Cruise of the Falcon.
stantly going. As we approached the mouth of the
Lujan the water gradually shoaled, for here the
alluvial matter brought down by the many rivers of
the delta have formed a great bank known as Las
Palmas, that stretches far out to sea. From two
fathoms we shoaled to ten feet, then to nine, then
eight. The pilot looked anxious.
" How much did you say you were drawing.^" he
asked.
" Seven feet six inches," was the reply.
" Well, we may do it. We'll hit the channel soon,
and be in deep water. Besides the mud is soft here,
we can drive her through it."
Another cast of the lead showed us we were in
seven feet of water. Bump, bump the vessel went, as
she sailed over the mud, before half a gale of wind,
with all canvas set.
" We shall be in deep water soon," said the pilot ;
" but the river is precious low ; there should be more
than eight feet here by rights."
Another cast of the lead indicated a depth of only
six feet, and the Falcon^ after vainly attempting to
force her way a little further, stuck firmly, to the
great disgust of the pilot, who seemed to be surprised
that a vessel drawing nearly eight feet of water could
not sail where there was a depth of six.
We quickly lowered all the canvas on deck, while
Jerdein, who had promised himself a pleasant evening
in town with some old friends, admonished that
unhappy pilot " till the air was blue with blasphemy "
There was no particularly pleasant evening for any
one that night. We got two anchors down, and
proceeded to wait until some sea-wind, or flood, or
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 2 1
other phenomenon, should cause the waters to rise,
an event which might be in an hour or in a month, as
far as we could tell, and the pilot could not enlighten
us. The water was still going down, for in three
hours after we struck we found that there was a
depth of only five feet round us. The wind now
freshened considerably, and howled and whistled
through our rigging.
It was a weird and melancholy scene from the
FalcofCs deck. A few miles to the port hand was the
low leaden-coloured shore of mud, a leaden sky was
above, and the choppy seas of dirty water that
were around us were of still more dismal a shade.
Towards evening the rain commenced to fall heavily,
and the wind increased till it blew a gale from the
south-east. This made matters look rather serious
for us, for this coast is a lee-shore to this wind, which
blows straight from the Atlantic. The seas became
higher and higher, and occasionally washed over us,
and had we bumped about throughout the night
in the manner we did at first, the Falcon^ strong
though she be, might possibly have broken up. But
this south-east wind, blowing straight into the estuary
from seawards, is the wind of all others to cause the
waters of the Plate to rise rapidly, for it stops the
currents from proceeding out to the ocean, and drives
them back towards the delta. In about an hour the
water had risen upwards of two feet, and we were
afloat once more, riding safe to our two anchors,
only striking the bottom with our keel at long
intervals, after some higher wave than usual had
passed by.
We remained at anchor during the night, rolling
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1 22 The Cruise of the Falcon,
about very heavily ; but we had good holding ground
under us, and good ground tackle to hold on by, else
we should have felt more anxious than we did, riding
out a gale of wind on this lee-shore. In fact we got
off very well considering everything, and much better
than some others did, for we afterwards found that
two schooners had been driven ashore at Buenos
Ayres that night, and broken up. At daybreak the
wind moderated and came round from the north-east,
while the water commenced to fall again. We
weighed anchor, and proceeded to cross the bank
towards a buoy that marks the entrance of the
channel — not withouttouching the ground occasionally.
At last we found ourselves in deep water once more,
and sailed into the Lujan, which we found to be a
narrow river, with low banks overgrown with forests
of willows. After ascending the stream for about
two miles we reached the junction of the Tigre and
the Lujan, and proceeded up the former river a few
hundred yards till we reached the rowing-club house.
We brought up alongside the bank, put out an anchor
ahead, and one astern, and took a warp to a tree on
shore.
On looking around us we were very contented with
our new berth. It was the snuggest that the old
Falcon had known tor a very long time. The banks
of the river were thickly grown with graceful willows
and other trees, while handsome villas were scattered
here and there, with beautiful gardens of sub-tropical
shrubs and flowers stretching from them to the water's
edge. Not by any means the least pleasing feature
of the agreeable landscape was a group of pretty
young Spanish ladies, who came out of the villa just
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 1 2 3
opposite our anchorage into the garden to gaze at
the unwonted spectacle of an English yacht in the
Tigre. The captain of the port of the Tigre came off
to us, inspected our papers, and gave us pratique, so
we were free to take train into Buenos Ayres. On
landing and looking around us we found that we were
in a very different sort of country from any we had
yet visited. This delta of the Parana is one vast flat
jungle, scarcely raised two feet above the level of the
water, and intersected by innumerable creeks and
channels, that flow sluggishly between islands of every
size, only a few of which are inhabited, or for the
matter of that have even ever been trodden by the
foot of man. The richest portion of this mosquito-
infested labyrinth, and the most thickly-peopled, is
in the neighbourhood of the Tigre. This indeed is a
beautiful region, called the Venetia of South America.
Here the many islands are covered with a prodigal
natural vegetation and very forests of peach-trees, for
the fat alluvial soil is as rich as that of the Nile banks,
and the river is continually overflowing it to leave
fresh deposits.
French and Italian immigrants possess many of
these islands, and cultivate on them millions of
peaches and splendid vegetables of all kinds. Very
pleasant little farms these are. Each family has a
little island to itself, surrounded by narrow creeks — a
secluded little paradise among the drooping willows.
The house is built invariably on piles, so as to be
above the level of the waters in time of flood. The
most lovely roses and other flowers grow luxuriantly
around the homestead. The only means of commu-
nication is by water, and every morning can be seen
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1 2 4 The Cruise of the Falcon.
canoe after canoe laden with fruit and flowers floating
slowly down the willow- shaded canals to market, the
light-hearted owner singing merrily as he stands up
in the stern propelling his little craft with one long
oar, as they do in the Venetian gondolas.
There is a peculiar dream-like beauty about this
enchanted region that strikes all visitors to La Plata.
The citizens of Buenos Ayres are very^ fond and
proud of the Tigre. Its banks are a favourite resort
on Sunday, and many a pleasant picijic party and
fete champitre enlivens the isles in the summer days.
Before any one decides to purchase land and settle
among the channels of the delta, he should first con-
sider one or two rather serious drawbacks. In the
first place, the mosquitoes are terrible ; in the second
place, real property hereabouts is by no means an
"immovable." These islands and creeks are ever
changing. If you buy an island one year, it may
have grown to double its original size by the next,
or it may have disappeared altogether ; where houses
once stoqd, deep waters now roll ; and on the other
hand, the peach-trees grow thickly where the river
schooners were wont to sail a few years back. The
now deserted port of the Tigre was once animated
with the presence of much shipping, and noisy with
the sound of the hammers of the workshops and
forges on the banks, where Genoese immigrants
carried on every branch of naval construction and
repair. But all now is silent, and the shipwrights
have been driven away to the Boca and San Fer-
nando, to the utter ruin of many of them who had
invested all their little capital on their establishment
here. This exodus was very sudden, and was due
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 2 5
to one of those arbitrary orders of a whimsical and
selfish tyrant so common in these free republics.
Dr. Tejedor, the would-be dictator of the Argentine
Republic, happened to fall into possession of a villa
on the banks of the Tigre. The constant din of
hammering annoyed him, so he peremptorily exerted
the powers entrusted to him to clear his neighbourhood
of the obnoxious and noisy aliens.
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126 The Cruise of the Falcon.
CHAPTER VIII.
And now, my readers, I am going to take you with
me far away from the salt seas, not to return to them
again until you have followed me over many thou-
sands of miles of inland travel, extending over nine
months of time. For the Falcon was now to sail up
the great fresh-water rivers to the central wildernesses
of the continent, where no yacht had ever been before ;
and again she was to be left for months at anchor,
while her crew changed their sailor life for that of
the gaucho, and rode across the great Pampas,
through the arid mantes of St. lago, to the great ,
Cordilleras and tropical forests of Tucuman.
A few months before our arrival, Buenos Ayres had
passed through one of those periodical revolutions,
without which no South American Republic is long
happy. The bumptiousness of the province of Buenos
Ayres provoked the contest; for the Portenos, as
the Buenos Ayreans term themselves, wished to raise
by force their own man to the office of President, in
despite of the votes of the other thirteen provinces.
Buenos Ayres is so much the largest, so far the
most wealthy, the most civilized, and the whitest of
all the cities of the Argentine Confederation — and it
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 127
must be remembered that this is a confederation of
cities — that the Portenos fancy themselves vastly, and
despise the provincials, whom they are inclined to
consider as mere barbarous half-breeds, which is not
far from the truth. All the culture and spirit of
progress that there is in this republic emanates from
Buenos Ayres.
But in these days of railways, the great seaport can
no longer successfully defy the united provinces as
of old ; and when the national troops concentrated
outside the city they soon brought it to terms, not-
withstanding the heroism displayed. The Argentine
men-of-war were in the hands of the Nationals, and
bombarded the city ; but they do not seem to have
inflicted much damage, which is not surprising, con-
sidering of what material the navy here is composed.
These revolutions are a great nuisance to the
estanqieros (cattle-farmers) in the camps ; for while
they last the country is overrun by irregular troops
and marauding gauchos, who requisition and rob in a
most promiscuous fashion. Robbery is after all the
whole object of these civil discords ; the two parties
fight their little game out, and the winner enjoys the
monopoly of swindling the nation for the term of the
presidential office ; bloodshed is avoided as much as
possible. This time, however, one serious engage-
ment was fought in Buenos Ayres ; for the rival armies
met by accident, and about 2000 of the Buenos
Ayreans were slain by the wild Indians and half-
breeds of the provincial army. This battle, so they
say, was entirely due to bad generalship, for all the
rival forces desired was to keep apart and plunder in
different directions. Unfortunately, it came to pass
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1 28 The Cruise of t/te Falcon.
that the two armies came across each other, and were
plundering at the same time in the same locality. It
was exceedingly awkward. They could not very
well wink at each other and continue to plunder on
different sides of the street. They could not ignore
and cut each other dead, so were obliged, if only as
a matter of form, to do a bit of fighting. I suppose
they got warmed up when they once commenced, for
it was a serious business as long as it lasted, and the
butcher's bill was longer than the Government liked
to confess afterwards.
One bold and well-known officer of the National
army, by the way, had his portrait taken at this time
under very exceptional circumstances, if the popular
story can be believed. It seems that the street fight
was going on very briskly just under the studio of
a well-known photographer. This artist bethought
himself of taking an instantaneous photograph of the
action. It was highly successful, notwithstanding the
smoke ; and when all was over the copies sold freely.
But unfortunately the officer I mentioned came out in
the picture as standing or advancing, I forget which,
with his back to the enemy, like Mark Twain's heroes
in Palestine, bent on a vigorous charge on any foe that
might be to the rear. When this came to his know-
ledge his wrath knew no bounds, and I believe that
the wretched photographer is still in durance vile in
some deepest dungeon beneath a castle moat, atoning
for his compromising work of art.
We loafed about Buenos Ayres until we were bored ;
were "welcomed on Change" — Anglo- Portenos will
•know what that means ; visited several estatiQias in
the southern camps and elsewhere, acquiring an in-
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 129
sight into the unnecessarily brutal way in which
^horses are broken in and cattle worked in this part of
the globe ; were interested in the ostrich farms, which
promise to be as remunerative here as in South
Africa ; and then considered whither we should
next go.
Our chief object in coming out to this part of the
world was to ascend some of the tributaries of the
great La Plata, as far as was possible in the yacht ; for
from all we had heard and read, such a voyage would
not fail to repay us with the enjoyment of strange
and marvellous scenery and splendid sport ; nor were
we altogether disappointed in our expectations.
But for the present the river voyage was not to be
thought of. It was now midsummer, and even as far
south as Buenos Ayres — by the shores, too, of the
refreshing sea— the thermometer did not rarely indicate
100° in the shade. Those at Buenos Ayres who knew
the Parana and Paraguay, advised us to postpone our
cruise till the winter, and drew alarming pictures for
us of the intolerable torment of the mosquitoes, that
would render our life a misery to us on the inland
waters at this season.
We therefore determined to leave the Falcon at her
safe moorings in the Tigre in charge of the boy, pur-
chase a horse each, and undertake an expedition into
the interior of the continent of about two months'
duration. Our plans were rather vague when we left
the capital, but Cordoba, the ancient Jesuit city in
the heart of the republic, was to be our immediate
destination ; and Rosario, the second city of this
country and 280 miles higher up the river than
Buenos Ayres, our starting-point. From Cordoba we
VOL. I. K
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130 The Cruise of the Falcon,
would journey cither to the tropical provinces to the
north, or westward to the Andes, as we might con-
sider best.
Jerdein, Amaud, and myself met at the Esta9ion
Centrale one delicious February morning. Our lug-
gage was simple and business-like ; each took with
him a saddle, saddle-bags containing spare flannel
shirts, &c., top-boots, a blanket, a revolver, a poncho,
and a wide native belt of carpincho hide ; while a
broad-brimmed felt hat was on each head. After a
three hours' journey in the comfortable American cars
of the Campana Railway Company, across treeless,
dusty plains of pasture whose monotony the rare
agave and cactus alone relieved, we reached Cam-
pana, a small port on one of the many channels of
the great delta of the La Plata. This is the terminus
of the railway, and here we had to embark on David
Bruce and Co.*s steamer Prove Jar, a comfortable vessel,
where a good dinner is provided for the passengers,
and whose steward is not a novice at concocting the
invigorating cocktail. We had many friends on board,
so the swizzle-stick. South American fashion, was not
left idle. These steamers run between Campana and
Rosario, a distance of about 200 miles, thus connect-
ing Buenos Ayres with the Central Argentine Trunk
Railway, whose southern terminus is at Rosario. We
were enabled to form a good idea of what was in store
for the good ship Falcon^ from what we saw on this
short voyage up the great Parana. We steamed all
that afternoon and throughout the night up a broad
stream of muddy water, winding across an alluvial
plain flat as a pancake. This stream was broad and
deep, as a huge river should be, and yet this was but
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 3 1
one minor branch of this tremendous watercourse,
which, with its sister the Amazon, drains the huge
southern continent ; and whose head-waters are in the
unexplored tropical forests and savannahs, in close
proximity to those of that other mighty river.
The Paraguay, the Parana, the Uruguay, and a
dozen other mighty streams pour their waters into
the common estuary of the Rio de la Plata, and it
is estimated that the volume of water brought down
hourly by this river exceeds that of all the rivers in
Europe put together. As we steamed up we could
perceive the mainland on neither side of us, for this
was but a comparatively narrow channel between two
huge islands. And what a strange country was this
intricate network of island and channel. On our
starboard hand, for instance, the mainland was thirty
miles away ; between us and that were islands num-
berless, rising not more than two feet or so above the
average level of the water — ^^an unknown wilderness
of swamp and jungle, uninhabited save in rare spots,
by the shores of the more commonly navigated
channels. The islands are thickly overgrown with a
rank and ever-verdant vegetation. Willows, great
reeds, the gnarled seibo-tree, with its bright green
leaves and scarlet blossoms ; strange bushes, all inter-
woven with rich convolvuli, render these wilds impas-
sable save to the carpincho or river-hog, the tiger,
and the lion (as the natives call the jaguar and the
puma), and deadly snakes of resplendent colour.
Near Rosario, the islands are frequently inhabited.
Enterprising foreigners cultivate rice successfully on
some of them, and on others, as I read from the
Buenos Ayres Standard^ certain not desirable people
K 2
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132 The Cruise of the Falcon.
are to be found : gauchos, who have given up the
horse to take to the carioe — ^a lawless set, who make
frequent raids on the estangtas of the mainland, fisher-
men by profession, but pirates and banditti by prac-
tice. For those good old-fashioned ruffians, the
buccaneers, are by no means extinct on the tribu-
A GAUCHO'S HOME IN THE SWAMPS.
taries of La Plata. There are districts on the
banks of the Parana, for instance, near Corrientes,
a thousand miles from the sea, that have acquired
a very evil reputation ; cut-throat crews have often
come out in canoes from the secluded riachos of
the Chaco, seized and plundered the passing Italian
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 133
trading-schooners, and murdered the men. Most
of these trading-schooners now carry a small cannon
in addition to their muskets. The Falcon, though
much smaller than any of these vessels, would, I
think, be quite as capable as any of them of resist-
ing the pirates successfully, for we are incomparably
better off as regards arms.
It was pleasant to be on the Parana this fine
summer night. After dinner we sipped our coffee
and smoked our cigarettes on deck, as the vessel
steamed up under the lovely stars of the southern
hemisphere. The sides of our vessel at times almost
brushed the jungle, which was now illuminated with
brilliant fireflies that emulated the planets them-
selves. Indeed with stars above us, their reflections
dancing on the gently rippling water, and the fire-
flies whirling all around, we seemed (for the night
was dark, and we could not perceive anything else
than these) to be a world ourselves, sailing through
an infinite space thick with stars. It was a beautiful
and curious effect, but it did not excite my unimagi-
native mind quite so strongly as it did that of one of
our fellow- passengers. This was an Englishman, I
am sorry to say, who had to all appearance been
about a week or so " on the booze." This gentleman
bethought him to run up suddenly from the hot
bright-lit cabin on the deck, so that the fresh night
air might cool his fevered brow somewhat. No
sooner did he make his appearance, than a puzzled
look first came over his countenance, he rubbed his
eyes, and looked around, then his jaw fell, and the
most abject terror was expressed in his eyes and open
mouth. He looked wildly at the myriad lights whirl-
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134 ^^ Cruise of the Falcon.
ing above, below, and around him, put his hands to
his head, closed his eyes to exclude the frightful
vision, and with a tragic whisper full of horror of
" Got 'em again ! Oh, got 'em again ! " plunged once
more below ; and then shouted to the mozo to bring
him a bottle of " three stars," wherein to drown those
other three million horrid stars without.
Mosquitoes soon drove us also below to play at
euchre, while a musical passenger played us some
pretty Spanish airs on the saloon piano.
On the following morning we found that we had
reached the main stream of the Parana. On our port
hand was the mainland, on our starboard a string of
islands about three miles away. The river itself is
still very wide, for the Entre Rios shore is quite forty
miles off, an unexplored wilderness of shallow streams
and long green isles intervening.
There is now a considerable navigation on the
Parana. Vessels from North America and Europe
load with hides, bones, and alfalfa (a sort of lucerne)
at the quays of Rosario ; but the navigation above
this is almost exclusively in the hands of the
Italians. Their vessels are handsome schooners, of
little draught, but great beam, with enormous spread
of canvas, and great square top-sails high aloft to
catch the wind above the trees. The running-gear
is generally of plaited hide, a very excellent sub-
stitute for rope. They go up against the stream,
laden with wines and European produce, even as far
as the centre of the Brazilian province of Matagrosso,
about 2400 miles from the sea — the voyage there and
back occupying about a year. They return to Buenos
Ayres and Montevideo with cargoes of cedar and
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 135
valuable hard woods from the virgin forests of the
Chaco, of oranges from Paraguay and other produce
of those rich but little cultivated countries.
At last we came to an anchor off Rosario, the
second city of the Republic, stretching along the
banks of a river which even here, so many hundreds
of miles from the sea, is so broad that from a ship's
deck the horizon between the many islands is of
water, the further coasts being invisible. Such are
the sea-like expanses that stretch between isle and
isle. Mr. Keenan, the popular host of the English
hotel at Rosario, soon made us at home in his com-
fortable hotel. He already knew us by reputation^
having read about our wanderings in the papers.
If you study any old atlas, and not so very old
either, you will not be able to discover such a place
as Rosario on the map of South America, yet you
will most probably see Santa F^, its neighbour,
maiked in prominent letters, though this is but a
little village to the first-named large and wealthy
city. For Rosario is one of those mushroom cities
that rise so rapidly in this new Western world. Its
prosperity is of yesterday ; it is bran-new — painfully
new from an artistic point of view ; a money-making,
tramwayed, prosperous place, that has doubled its
population in ten years, and will, in all probability,
double it again in another ten years ; for it cannot but
always be a most important place, being as it is the
terminus of those great railways that will in time open
out all the rich regions between the Bolivian forests
and the Pampas, the Pacific and the Atlantic. Now
that the influx of foreigners into the Argentine
Republic is augmenting so amazingly, and revolution
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1 36 The Cruise of the Falcon.
is waxing feebler and feebler before it, who can fore-
see limits to the increase of the commercial enterprise
and wealth of these wonderful countries ? Even now
the produce that lies on the quays of Rosario ready
to be put on board ship will give us an insight into
what is yet to be. There are the sugars — the valuable
cabinet woods of Tucuman — the hides and beef from
the estan9ias of the Pampas — wines from the eastern
slopes of the Andes, the vintage of Mendoza and San
Juan; minerals, too, from the Cordilleras, and from the
Sierras of Cordoba, where gold and silver and copper
abound, and only await the adventurous miner.
There is but little to say about these modern
Spanish South American cities. They are very
uninteresting. In describing one you describe all.
The same straight streets drawn at right angles to
each other, with the dismal one-storied, flat-roofed
houses. Tramways everywhere. A square or two. A
cleanly, prosperous look about the whole, inhabitants
included. Here you have everything. This chess-
board-like, block system of laying out cities produces
one effect that eminently strikes the stranger. In
any of these long, straight streets one has an
uninterrupted view right through the town. At
Buenos Ayres, and more especially at Montevideo,
the sea terminates the view as a rule. Here it is the
Pampas. If you stand in the centre of Rosario where
any two streets cross, and look up and down them,
you will see that each abruptly terminates far off in a
sort of mist, for no straggling suburbs surround the
town. At the end of each street is the desert. The
mist you perceive is the dust of the immense plain
that commences at the verge of the city and stretches
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 137
unbroken for a thousand leagues. The suddenness
of the exit from the thickly thronged street into the
roadless wilds is very remarkable in many of these
cities, and is doubtless a relic of the old days when
Indian raids were frequent, and the first few founders
oitYiQ piieblo crowded their habitations together for
mutual protection, and surrounded them with a
common stockade. It is indeed a marvellous contrast ;
a wilderness untitled, inhabited by wild half-breeds
clad in a barbaric costume, coming up to the very
streets of cities, where every article of European
civilization is to be found, and whose citizens are
delicate in their lives and fastidiously dressed in the
height of the latest Parisian fashion. It is curious to
see the gaucho from the Pampas strolling through
the busy streets, so out of place with his striped
poncho, his laced drawers, and his hide belt ornamented
with coins. He does not evince any interest or
curiosity, but from his looks evidently hates and
despises towns and their pale inhabitants. Life in
the saddle, on the Pampas or in the Monte (bush), is
the only life he knows or cares for. Horse-stealing
and cattle-lifting, in his opinion, are the only pursuits
worthy of a man.
We were elected members of the Strangers' Club at
Rosario — an excellent club it is too — and enjoyed
therein a good read of all the latest European papers.
We found that there were accounts of our voyage in
the Field and other journals ; and were amused to
^ee that Truths in a little article, hinted that we must
be rather insane people. Anyhow, this paper shared
this opinion with the Emperor of the Brazils, so I
suppose there must be some truth in it.
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138 The Cruise of the Falcon.
One more day we pottered about the glaring hot
city and its environs. In the morning we visited an
ostrich farm on the river-bank; in the evening
attended a public ball. For the carnival was ap-
proaching, and South Americans only requiring an
excuse to commence their favourite pastime, generally
open the masked balls weeks before the orthodox
time, so as to get into full swing for that fearful
Terpsichorean orgie which they celebrate once a year.
The Indo-Spanish race, lazy in all else, is certainly
indefatigable in dance. For nights in succession
these people will tread unwearied their graceful
native figures with supple limbs. The head — every
limb — indeed the whole being, seems to be entering
into the measure, inspired with a species of phrenzy.
At three theatres here there were public masked
balls this night attended by all classes, from stately
white ladies in Parisian costume, to the simple little
copper^coloured chinas with pink dresses of common
stuff and black mantillas, ever-laughing faces, and
perpetually shaking fans. There are, by the bye, some
not uncomely faces among these dusky half-breeds —
the Indian blood producing a much handsomer type
than the negro, when crossed with the Spanish or
Portuguese.
Before starting on our expedition we had to ex-
change the notes we had brought from Buenos Ayres
for the money current up country. Every province
of this republic has a circulation of its own not
current in the other provinces, which accounts for
the enormous number of money-changers one comes
across in every city. There is a common standard
throughout the whole country, called a patacon, which
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 39
is about the value of four shillings ; but this patacon
has no real existence, it is a purely imaginary
quantity ; there is no coin or bank-note which pro-
fesses to be one or more patacones, or any fraction of
the same; but I suppose it serves as a standard
whereby to compare the variously fluctuating pro-
vincial moneys.
In the province of Buenos Ay res gold or silver is
unknown, paper money being the only currency. The
original paper dollar was intended to represent a
Spanish silver dollar or peso ; but between revolu-
tion and what not this paper peso gradually depre-
ciated till it reached its present value of about two-
pence. This seeming somewhat unsatisfactory to
the sage rulers of the country, they issued another
superior sort of paper dollar which they called the
pesofuerte, or hard dollar, to be of the full value of
the original four and twopenny silver coin before
mentioned. This is now current in Buenos Ayres by
the side of the twopenny paper dollar, ox peso corrienie.
But, alas ! th^ peso fuerte has also terribly depreciated
by this time ; whether the Government will issue an
extra-ftierte, and then when that goes down difuer-
tissimoy and so on, is beyond my power to say.
The Government of Santa F6, the province in which
we now are, issues a paper dollar of the value of
about three shillings. The Cordoban paper dollar is
worth a little more, and does represent some fixed
value — the silver dollar of Bolivia. In the remoter
and poorer provinces there is no paper money ; but
quaint old silver Bolivian coins, Peruvian and Chilian
dollars, and the like foreign money are the sole
currency. I have said enough to show how confusing
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140 The Cruise of the Falcon.
this system is, and how the unfortunate traveller
must lose in the frequent exchanges while travelling
through this republic. It is rather a curious fact
that in the wealthier republics of South America
metallic currency is quite unknown, while the poorer
countries like Paraguay and Bolivia have nothing
else. I suppose the fact is that no one would have
anything to do with the paper of these untrustworthy
states, had they the impudence to issue any.
About seven leagues from Rosario, on the Central
Argentine Railway, is the small town— I must not
risk offence by calling it a village— of Carcaranal.
Hearing that this was a likely place to purchase
horses in, we took train thither on the second morning
after our landing at Rosario. This railway is carried
in a perfectly straight line, without curve or gradient,
for hundreds of miles across the Pampas — and strange
these vast plains seemed to us as viewed to-day for
the first time from the windows of the car. We saw
an interminable pasture, roadless, treeless, stretching
all around ; here and there a great cattle farm, either
unfenced or surrounded with a wire fence ; vast herds
of sleek cattle and troops of half-wild horses roamed
over the plain. Here and there were partial deserts
of burnt-up earth and sand ; here muddy lagunas ;
while at long intervals, like oases in this treeless
waste, rose small isolated clumps of eucalypti, marking
the sites of the estan9ias. Under the intense blue sky
the horizon seemed to be infinitely far off, trembling
and rolling like the waves of a distant sea with the
mirage, while the distant eucalypti were raised by it,
and seemed to be rooted in mid-air.
At Carcarafial we found a little inn, kept by a
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The Cruise of tfie Falcon. 141
hospitable dame from old Gaul, who made us very
comfortable. A curious little camp-town this : merely
a straight row of clean flat-roofed white one-storied
houses ; in front a lane of small acacias, and all
around and beyond, glaring under the cloudless
implacable sky, the arid plain with its short dried-up
grass; a cloud of dust over all, dust of the finest and
most penetrating nature, dust that will find its way
through all your clothes to your skin in no time, dust
that is as bad as an Egyptian plague, irritating, blind-
ing, pore-closing, parching, — stay, let us at least give it
justice— it did prepare us to thoroughly enjoy the
brimming cups of cana and water, flavoured with
some delicate essence of fruit, that our landlady
mixed for us. There is use in everything, even
in dust.
A funny collection we were in the little hostelry
after dinner. At one table was our party playing at
euchre in shirt sleeves ; at another several natives in
camp garb gambling desperately at monte, with a
very greasy pack of cards. In the next room we could
perceive through the open door a merry wedding-
supper party— ^/«^(^j these, English, German, French,
and Italian colonists. We had arrived here very
opportunely ; for as soon as these people had dined
they cleared the room for a jolly ball, which was
energetically kept up all night to the merry music of
a three-tuned barrel-organ. As is the free and easy
fashion of this country, all strangers were welcome to
join them in their merry-making. Wedding garments
were by no means de rigueur^ but it seemed the proper
thing to take off one's coat while dancing.
In the middle of the night we heard in a lull in the
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142 The Cruise of the Falcon,
revelry a shouting of many voices in the distance,
and then the tread and lowing of numerous cattle.
This turned out to be a vast herd of many hundred
head that was being driven down to Rosario from
some far northern province, where a long seca had
been prevailing, and where all beasts were dying for
want of water and pasture. As soon as the peons
had rounded in these cattle outside the town for the
night, the head-man and a few others came in to seek
hospitality. Attracted by the sound of the baile they
entered the inn, and were soon dancing away with the
best of us, in despite of the fatigue and stiffness of a
month in the saddle. They danced in their camp
dress, top-boots, silver spurs, chiripas, poncho and
all, so that one might almost imagine oneself at a
fancy-dress ball at home, such was the variety of
costume.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 143
CHAPTER IX.
Not being able to find what we wanted in the way
of horses at Carcaraiial, we again took train to Canada
de Gomez, another camp-town a few leagues h^'gher
up the line. A typical little camp settlement we
found this to be, the mushroom growth of a few years
— new and prosperous, with an astonishing amount of
civilization, too, considering where it is. We entered
the fonda^ or general store where the camp-man
comes down, to buy all he wants, groceries, powder,
and especially cana, I fear. The proprietor, Schnack,
is an old Dutchman, a sailor, whose long service in
British ships accounts for his perfect knowledge of our
tongue. He put an upper room at our disposal to
sleep in. He could not feed us, only lodge and
drink us, he said ; but there was a restaurant at the
railway station opposite, so that mattered little.
A wonderfully cosmopolitan continent this South
America is. Having left our Dutchman for the
restaurant over the way, we found the proprietor of
this was an old French soldier, of the Garde
Imperiale, and a tnattre d'escrime. Then we went to
the barber to be shaved, and found that he was a
citizen of Naples : his razors, I imagine, came out of
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144 T^h^ Cruise of the Falcon.
the torture-chambers of the Inquisition. This is
indeed a very civilized little town. We not only have
our restaurant and our barber, but also our judge ;
also a half-finished church — this the common con-
dition of a camp-town church, for the priests, after
squeezing a certain amount of dollars from the pious,
start building on an over-ambitious scale, run short of
funds, and then comes a standstill in the work, until
the little dribblets of oflFerings enable further progress.
There is also a prison here, this being an imposing
pair of stocks considerately placed under the shade
of the pretty 9ina-9ina trees in front of a grog-shop.
The court-house where justice is dispensed, and
which is also the residence of the judge, belongs to
friend Schnack. The Government is a bad paymaster,
and our host tells me that after many vain applica-
tions for arrears of rent he has been obliged to evict
the poor judge and Mistress Justice to seek a roof
elsewhere.
Peaceful and civilized though this little place
appears, the untamed Indian tribes are not so far off.
It is now but twelve years since the Indians made a
raid here, and carried away 10,000 head of cattle, and
many women, for the aboriginal has the good taste to
prefer the white to the dusky beauties of his own
race. But the camps of the white men have advanced
many leagues further into the Indian territory since
that time, and Caiiada de Gomez has little to fear
now. A raid of Pampas Indians is no joke. As the
. peaceful stock-farmer is scanning his herds one fine
morning he perceives a dust on the horizon, and out
of the dust soon comes on at a tremendous gallop
the wild troop of naked men on splendid horses.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 145
seeming one with their steeds — very centaurs — with
long black hair waving behind their shoulders, and
brandishing their long lances, while they raise their
piercing and fearful war-cries. The estan9ia is
pillaged in a few moments, the wife and daughters of
the estan9iero carried off, and then, swooping down
on the herds, the savages drive them away to the
distant pastures by far rivers that the white man
knows not of. When Indians on expeditions of this
nature come across a solitary white man they kill
him if they find arms upon him ; if he be unarmed
they treat him more mercifully (?) — they content
themselves with cutting off the soles of his feet, and
let him go.
Schnack's was a type of the regular camp-town
store ; loafing about the bar, drinking cafia, gin, and
cocktails, was the usual crowd from the camp. Natives
in their picturesque dress, and English estanfieros —
these, many of them, in the native costume also, but
mostly in shirt sleeves, top-boots, broad felt sombreros,
and hide belts with six-shooters and knives stuck
ostentatiously therein. The Englishman of the pro-
vince of Santa F^ rather affects this brigand-like get
up ; but I believe there is good reason for it, as there
are no few bad characters about, and the hand of
justice being almost impotent hereabouts, each one
must look out for himself.
When the men standing at the bar heard of our
proposed ride, they of course overwhelmed us with
advice. When in reply to their queries we said that
we thought of riding through Cordoba to Tucuman,
first one, a Yankee, said, —
" Take train from here to Cordoba, and commence
VOL. I. L
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146 The Cruise of the Falcon.
your ride frpm there. There is nothing to interest
you between here and that city."
Said another, a Britisher, —
" No ; ride from here to Cordoba ; that will be all
very well. ' To go beyond that will be madness ; you
will lose yourselves and die of thirst in the Salinas,
salt-deserts where there is no water — salt and cacti
and sun, salt and sun and cacti, nothing more."
Said a third, a native, —
" My advice is, don't go at all. It is too hot to ride
this time of the year ; what pleasure can you find in
galloping through the eternal salt and sun and cacti
that my friend here speaks of?" .^'
I tried to persuade this last that we were a scien-
tific expedition, that had been sent hither by the
English Government to inspect sun and salt and
cacti, and send home returns thereon ; but he would
not swallow this, and set us down as harmless
lunatics.
We were not a little laughed at, too, when we
informed our friends that we intended to accomplish
our journey with one horse each — taking no remounts.
This was pronounced as impossible. In this land
of cheap horseflesh it is the universal custom to travel
with a tropilla — four or evjsn eight horses to each
man. A mare, the madrinay with bell tinkling ^t her
neck, is also taken, and all the spare horses follow
her like sheep do the bell-sheep, as she leads the way.
It is only necessary to hobble the madrina when the
party encamps for the night ; the troop of geldings
can be left to graze at will, for these animals will not
stray far, but keep near the lady, with an affecting
Platonic tenderness. This method of travelling by
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 147
tropilla is certainly by far the fastest. The fashion
here is to go at full gallop, leap from one horse to
another, as they in turn weary, and get over about
one hundred miles a day — the South American
caring little if he lose a few of his animals by the
way. We however preferred our own quieter mode
of travelling, which our experience in other lands
had taught us was certainly possible. One horse
well looked after will carry a man for a journey of
months ; at a very fair pace too.
The result proved that we were right, for we
reached, later on, lands where there was no pasture,
and where hard food for our horses had to be pur-
chased at extravagant prices. Had we been travelling
with thirty instead of four horses we should have
found it rather expensive work.
Many a long yarn was spun this night for our
benefit by our revolvered friends on the dangers of
our way. They told us of the monteneros of San-
tiago, who would cut our throats and steal our horses;
of the salt-deserts, where we would perish of thirst
— deserts in whose midst two tropillas have been
known to meet and fight to the death for the little
skin of water that was all left to one party ; of the
deadly chuchu, or fever, of the northern provinces ; of
jiggers that would bring mortification to our toes,
and the bicho Colorado that would lay eggs in our
legs ; and so on.
About thirty miles from here is the estan9ia of
Las Rosas, the property of the well-known Mr.
Kemiss, whose horned cattle and horses are the pride
of the Plate, an enterprising man who has introduced
blood from England, and whose horses carry all
L 2
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1 48 The Cruise of t/ie Falcon.
before them on the race-courses of South America.
On the morning after our arrival at Canada de Gomez
we procured a trap and two horses and drove up to
this estan9ia. A pleasant drive it was, too, through
the clear exhilarating air of the plains ; beneath our
feet were flowers of every hiie, chief among which that
commonest flower of the Pampas, the scarlet verbena.
The grasses hereabouts were long and of various
species. All of them were now capped with plumes
of silver seed, so that on the horizon the white
stretches of it were exactly like the sands of a distant
desert. We followed the tropilla-track to the north,
which consisted merely of the ruts made by the huge
waggons of the caravans that have for ages wended
their slow way by this route. In places which are
apt to be swampy in wet weather, the ruts become
very deep, so that the waggons have to avoid them
and make a slight circuit : thus new tracks are formed
parallel to the old, till in some softer parts of the
country the road is a band of a thousand ruts, a mile
or so in breadth. Such are all the roads of the
Pampas — roads to the construction of which man has
contributed no labour.
The pastures we crossed to-day were some of the
richest of this province. Here you have a typical
view of the camp as we saw it when we unharnessed
our horses and allowed them a 'rest and a roll at
midday. First, just before us stretched the muddy
tropilla-track, a dark line through the bright grasses.
Across it lay the huge clumsy walnut wheel of a
broken-down waggon ; the bones of cattle were fre-
quent, and a little further off" we could see a crowd
of mangy vultures feeding on the carcass of a horse.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 49
At the entrance to the numberless bizcacha holes,
among the wild pumpkins, sat, solemnly blinking,
the grey owls, generally in twos, sociably. Why, by
the bye, does the bizcacha always plant pumpkins and
owls at his door ?
Looking further away we perceived on one side
the silver stretch of a laguna a league or so off, with
many cattle and horses by it— also numerous plover ;
the grass by it not yellow and partly burnt as else-
where, but of a vivid green. Beyond that, afar off,
stretched the unbroken horizon of the plains, a long
line of smoke rising from it in one place, showing
where some leagues of camp were on fire.
Turning round in the other direction we could
perceive some shy gama, the deer of the Pampas,
playing under the shade of a solitary ombu ; beyond
that on the horizon the waving sea of the mirage,
and two tall columns as of a waterspout dark against
the bright sky — two dust-whirls that broke and
vanished as suddenly as they had arisen. A strange
solemn land this lonely Pampas ; still, too, save for
the sound of the dry north wind sighing in the grass.
At last we reached the wire fences and passed
through the strong gates on to the lands of the great
breeder of horses, and drove up to the hospitable
house. A pleasant place this, and possessing what
is very rare on the Pampas — a garden of flowers and
one of fruit and vegetables. The native estan9iero
is far too lazy a man to cultivate these ; he breeds
his cattle in his rough brutal way; and yet, though he
number them by thousands, butter and milk are un-
known luxuries in his house. He is content to eat
his perpetual asado ^nApuchero without vegetables or
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150 The Cruise of the Falcon.
bread or seasoning ; alfalfa and maize being the sole
produce he condescends to raise from his estate.
The locusts had been playing considerable havoc
in Mr, Kemiss' gardens of late : the peach-trees stood
stripped of all leaf and fruit, the stones alone hanging
bare of flesh from the skeleton twigs. The blue gum-
trees and the prickly pears, of which the hedge round
the garden was composed, had alone resisted the
ravages of these destroying swarms. As the sun set
we perceived what is a common sight enough on the
Pampas in summer. All around the horizon, at five
different points, were long bands of ruddy flame.
These camp fires sometimes burn and smoulder on
for months, devouring league after league of pasture.
We had an* opportunity of seeing how these fires are
extinguished while we were in this neighbourhood.
The method is one which will illustrate as much as'
anything the value of horseflesh in this country. The
peons of the estate which we were visiting perceived a
fresh fire breaking out on the verge of their master's
lands : immediately they galloped off to it. There
happened to be a troop of mares close by grazing
tranquilly. In almost less time than it takes to de-
scribe it, two of these were lassoed, thrown on their
backs, killed, and their stomachs ripped right up
with the long knife every native carries ; lassos were
attached to the legs of the animals, and the mounted
men dragged the bleeding carcasses across the burning
grass — and a very efficacious method it proved to be,
for the conflagration was thus got under in a few
minutes.
On the morrow we borrowed horses from Mr. Kemiss,
and galloped all over the country to see if any neigh-
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 151
bouring estan9ieros had horses fit for our expedition
to sell us. We rode to the estan9ia of Las Tres
Lagunas, then to that of Las Lomas, and that of
California — where three brothers from Central Cali-
fornia were trying their fortunes, — but all in vain ;
save one tropilla of unbroken young riscos from the
Entre Rios camps we could find nothing.
So the next morning we drove back to Canada de
Gomez in our trap. It was a sultry day, heavy with
storm. When we had about half-completed our
journey the sky became overclouded, and vivid forked
lightning flashed in the distance. The horses trembled :
their instinct evidently told them what was coming ;
for nothing is more terrible than a storm on the
Pampas. All animals, and man himself, are struck
with terror when they find themselves overtaken on
the unsheltered wilderness by these terrific tem-
pests. The blast sweeps over these thousands of
leagues of plain with force unchecked, meeting no
obstacles of hill and dale to deflect and break its
Titanic strength. The wind drives all before it, the
vast herds of lowing cattle till they fall one on the top
of the other into the swollen rivers, and are drowned.
Clouds of dust are stirred up that make day as dark
as night, and have been known to bury great herds —
even as does the dreaded sand-storm of the Sahara —
and the hailstones fall so large and with such force
that they kill man and horse exposed to their fury,
and, as 1 have myself seen, break through the tiled
roofs of houses like so many round shot.
But curiously enough, where there comes but only
a little and rare cultivation and civilization, the
climate of a country changes. Of old the dust-storm
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152 The Cruise of the Falcon.
used frequently to rush into Buenos Ayres — now it
does so rarely and to a limited extent. And won-
derful though it may seem, they tell me that the
presence here in the wilds of Santa Fd of a few
scattered estan9ias, with their eucalypti, has greatly
contributed to break the fury of the desert tempest
and that to see it in all its horrible majesty one must
now go further out into the wilder regions of the
Pampas ; for not only the Indians, but drought and
the hurricane itself retreat before the advance of the
white man. But the storm we experienced this day
was quite enough for us. It came on with amazing
suddenness ; one moment it was hot, sultry, and
calm, the next moment a wind of hurricane strength
rushed down on us, and we shivered with cold, so
rapidly the temperature fell. The dust rose in clouds,
the hurricane threatened to capsize our trap and roll
it over the plain before it. We had to turn it to the
wind and heave-to as it were, stooping down with
our heads buried in our ponchos ; then the rain came
down sharp and stinging — a rain of mud, for it
gathered up all the dust from the skies as it de-
scended — a rain, too, of sticks and stones and grass,
and millions of prickly thistle-heads.
This deluge luckily did not last long, and the fury
of the short-lived tempest soon subsided ; but it left
us most miserable objects. We were drenched ; an
inch of mud covered our clothes, as thickly studded
with thistle-heads as a plum-pudding is with plums j
and we were not sorry when we found ourselves once
more under Schnack's hospitable roof.
Not being able to purchase horses in this neigh-
bourhood, we took train to the camp-town of Fraile
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 153
Muerto, which is in the province of Cordoba. A
batch of Buenos Ayres papers had reached us, so
we were enabled to read how the civilized world was
getting on in our absence. Among other items we
were interested to learn that during the last year
there had been 1600 marriages at Buenos Ayres, and
700 applications for separation. "This," adds the
journal, " is about the usual average." So it seems
that in the capital nearly one-half become wearied of
matrimony before the first twelvemonth of nuptial bliss
is over. We also read that ninety-three per cent, of
the births in Cordoba were illegitimate ; and that in
Paraguay there was one marriage last year — this latter
event being looked on by the editor as a hopeful sign,
and indicative of the moral regeneration of that
country. It seems from all this, that moral laxity
increases in South America, as pne advances further
inland away from the great seaports. But we are
south of the line here, and that is supposed to account
for a great deal.
Before reaching Fraile Muerto we observed that
the aspect of the Pampas was gradually changing.
For we were nearing the region of the montey or bush,
which stretches hence to the tropical forests of the
north. The camps, no longer monotonous wastes of
grass and thistles, were covered, save in some open
patches, with mimosas and thorny bushes ; com-
monest and most imposing among which rose the
algarobbas, noble trees of the mimosa species. The
algarobba is a tree of great importance in South
America. In the first place it is used in the place of
coal on the railway engines, and its wood serves for
sleepers. In the hot provinces of Santiago del Estero
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1 54 l^f^^ Cruise of the Falcon.
it bears fruit every year ; but here, in more tem-
perate Cordoba, but once in four years. This is a
large bean-like pcd full of saccharine matter. It is
excellent food for cattle; and horses, when hard-
worked, thrive on it as well as on maize. Even
human beings extract nourishment from the alga-
robba pod. The poor of Santiago almost entirely
subsist on cakes made from it, and the children seem
to be perpetually chewing the hard sweet seed in its
raw state. An enterprising Frenchman attempted
to prepare sugar from it, but failed to compete with
the cane sugar of Tucuman. However, a very palat-
able spirit is extracted from it. The algarobba is of
the same species as the locust-tree of Cyprus and
Asia Minor.
On arriving at Fraile Muerto station, which is some
way from the settlement, we found that civilization
had progressed so far that there were two coaches to
meet us. The driver of one, a sharp Indian, pounced
on us first, and claimed the caballeros as his own ;
the driver of the other, which happened to be the
coach of the fonda to which we were bound, then
hurried on the scene very disgusted indeed. After a
hot dispute between the rival Jehus, the disappointed
one came up to us while we were refreshing the inner
man at the station bar, and said to me in a con-
fidential manner, —
" What did he say he'd charge you } Whatever
it is, come with me and Til charge you less."
The Indian's fare was two reals a head.
" I will take you for one each," eagerly shouted
his rival on hearing this.
"No,no,hombre; we have promised the other fellow."
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 155
" ril take you all for two reals, then."
But we refused even this generous offer, to his
great astonishment, for he could not understand
how any one could sacrifice even a real to his
word. I believe he would have taken us for nothing,
nay, paid us to come with him in his spite against
the other driver ; but we were obdurate, so he stalked
off, muttering something about mad gringos.
We got into the Indian's trap, and drove at a
gallop across a plain of alternate pasture and brush-
wood ; then over an iron tridge that spanned the
Carcavanal, a typical river of the Pampas, flowing
rapid and muddy between two steep forty-feet-high
banks of earth, glittering with particles of diamond-
like mica — banks that were topped with evergreen
mimosas, while the interspaces of the bush were full
of lovely flowers, and the lofty pampa grass with
its plumes of silver feathers.
Fraile Mtierto is a prosperous-looking little camp-
town. It for the most part consists of one big square
with a double row of trees round it. Whenever a
n^yfj pueblo is founded in South America, the native
colonists commence by laying out an immense square.
At first it is a mere waste, with only three or four
ranchos maybe scattered along its lines, while all
round is the tiger- haunted jungle. The next thing
they do is to cut a race-course through this jungle,
and then they sit down and rest — they have done
enough — let Providence do the rest. From this
nucleus a great city may spring or it may not,
Quien sabe ? As a rule it does not ; but where there
is much of energetic foreign blood about, cities do
spring up very rapidly indeed in South America — so
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156 The Cruise of the Falcon.
is it with Fraile Muerto, which is fast becoming quite
a considerable little village.
The Spanish American mind always seems to run
in squares. His cities are built in cuadros all of a
size ; he even measures length by squares, and speaks
of so many cuadros where we should say so many
dozen rods. The Portuguese American prefers lines
to squares and irregularity to symmetry. The net-
work of streets in a Brazilian city is puzzling in the
extreme. You do not find there the chess-board
arrangement the Argentine people are so fond of.
Again, when Brazilians found some new village in the
interior, they prefer to make one long irregular street
of it, stretching along the high road. They do not
understand concentration around a central square.
At Faira St. Anna, for instance, there is one street
only, with no others branching off it. Yet this town
is of considerable size, and the one street it does
boast is, I am afraid to say how many miles in length.
There is a caf^ at either end of it. If you breakfast
at one, and walk briskly to the other, you will reach it
just in time for dinner — at least, so the natives say ;
but the story seems hardly probable. I should like
to see the man who performed this pedestrian feat,
for there happens to be a tramway running all down
this one-streeted town, and what Brazilian would walk
ten yards when he could drive, or even when he
couldn't ? for in that case he would remain in the end
of the town he was born in, and decline to venture to
the unknown further end of the street. The man
who boasted of that walk must certainly have been a
madman or an utterer of falsehoods.
We drove into the courtyard of the fonda of Don
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 5 7
P^pe. Our host came forth to meet us. Don Pepe
is a great character in his way — a Roman of noble
family, they say, and an ex-bandit of Calabria ; he
is a fine, handsome, white-haired old ruffian, and a
terrible swearer. His sister, a most stately Roman
dame, assists him in preserving order in his, at times,
rather noisy establishment. This lady rolls off the
sonorous Spanish and blood-curdling Italian oaths as
volubly as her brother.
Fraile Muerto is associated with the fortunes of the
ill-fated Henley colony. About twelve years since
there came hither from England a strange crew of
young English gentlemen with the ostensible object
of cattle farming. If energy and skill in cana drink-
ing and horse-racing are the sole requisites for a cattle
farmer, then none could be better than these. These
young men, unsteady, fresh from school and college
and regiment, without any practical knowledge of
anything, arrived at Rosario in a batch, and consider-
ably astonished the natives by their manners and
customs. The Henleyites came down on the land in
the fashion of a hostile army. They had a uniform
of which a plumed helmet was not the least con-
spicuous article ; each was provided with a regulation
rifle, revolver, and sabre, not to speak of the very
arsenal of wonderful weapons he took on his own
account in addition. They were encamped for some
time in a village of wooden huts, while lands were
being apportioned out to them ; and here they soon
showed what manner of colonists they were going to
be. Drinking, gambling, and horse-racing was the
order of the day. The capital they had brought with
them took unto itself wings, for let Ha^gringOy however
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158 The Cruise of the Falcon,
knowing in his own land, skin his eyes ere he match
himself on the turf with the simple gaucho of the
Pampas. So things went on, and the natives smiled
at the ways of the locos InglesaSy won their money,
acquired their mortgaged lands, while the colonists
diminished woefully in number. Many of these
gentlemen ultimately were driven to take any menial
work they could get ; some died of delirium tremens,
others self-despatched with their own revolvers ; the
remainder settled down, after the first wild burst was
over, with diminished means to the business they had
come over to undertake.
This prosperous little town of Fraile Muerto has
been built for the most part on the spoils that have
been wrung from the ill-fated Englishmen by pub-
licans and usurers.
But now, scattered all over these rich plains, are
stock-farmers of our own blood but of a very different
breed, experienced men from Scotland, from Aus-
tralia, ready for a lark at times may be, but keeping
ever a keen eye on the main chance. These are the
sort of men the native had in his eye when he said,
" Were it not for these strangers this republic would
only be one big bizcachero " (bizcacha warren).
Fiascos in the way of emigration are frequent out
here, and bring discredit on this fine country; whereas
it is the folly, or worse, of people at home that is
really to blame.
There have been schemes of this nature in South
America that have turned out far more unfortunately
than even this one of poor, well-meaning, but mis-
guided Mr. Henley. The Paraguayan Lincolnshire
farmer scheme, for instance. During our ride I hap-
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 159
pened to see a navvy working on a remote portion of
the Tucuman railway line. On my asking him the
way, or some such question, he proved to be a fellow-
countryman. He rested his foot on his spade, and
started a chat with me : —
" Right glad I am to have a chance of talking the old
language now and again," he said. He told me he had
been a jockey in his youth ; then a groom in London.
" And how came you out here } '* I asked.
" Oh, I came here as a Lincolnshire farmer," he
replied, with a humorous twitch about the corners of
his mouth.
" As a Lincolnshire farmer ? I don't quite under-
stand."
** Ha ! ha ! Well it do seem mm, don't it now }
But that's right — a Lincolnshire farmer. Why, you
know, I saw a grand emigration scheme advertised in
the papers, Lincoln farmers to go out to Paraguay
and grow tobacco on land that had been bought dirt
cheap from the Government ; splendid climate, and so
on. Bueno, I did not know a rap where Paraguay
was, and didn't care ; but I was main tired of town,
and times was bad, so I scraped some money
together, and off I went ; and here I am, less of a
Lincoln farmer than ever, I guess."
But his case was light enough. The misery that
wretched Lincoln farmer scheme brought on hun-
dreds is inconceivable. In the first place these
emigrants, who were supposed to be experienced
agriculturists from the rich lowlands of East Anglia,
were anything but that. Farmers, forsooth! No
more so than, and as useless in their way as, the
young gentlemen of the Henley colony ; roughs from
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1 60 The Cruise of the Falcon.
London, the offscourings of the Dials and White-
chapel, rusty acrobats, race-meeting minstrels, and
the like, not unaccompanied by a large following of
dirty, noisy women and puny children.
Well, this motley crowd was packed off a thousand
miles inland to grow tobacco in the tropical climate
of Paraguay. They reached the lands assigned to
them, an uncleared jungle alternating with swamp.
Here, as any one could have foretold, fever fell on
the miserable, uncared-for wretches, living as they
could amid deadly miasma; so helpless and ignorant
that they could not even put their hands to building
huts to cover them. So they perished by dozens, the
little children, weak with privation and fever, being
literally devoured by mosquitoes and jiggers, till they
died of putrefying sores. The remnant had to be
sent south again by the exertions of private charity ;
and, would it be believed, the men of this melancholy-
relic — independent, helpless, surly British workmen as
they were proved to be — refused to carry from the
bakers the biscuit charity had provided for them and
their starving families, unless they were paid for
doing so ! Some of the specimens of the British
working-man one sees in South America are verily
strange beasts, and not calculated to do credit to
their fatherland. But there was one emigration
scheme that I know of that beats all the others. A
peculiarly pestilential district, in a state adjoining this
one, was the locality chosen. The originators of the
scheme were sleek, godly men of the city of London,,
who richly deserve to be brought out and delivered
over to the tender mercies of those that have been
deluded by their plausible prospectus.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 6 1
CHAPTER X.
Jerdein was. a few years back an estan9iero near
Fraile Muerto, and remembers it in the old days
when Indian tribes roamed outside its square, and
Indian raids were frequent. He was engaged in
rather an amusing fiasco here, which is worth relating
as illustrative of life on the Pampas camps. A popular
English estan9iero had been murdered by a native.
The assassin, strange to say, was arrested by the
authorities, and locked up in the poli9ia of Fraile
Muerto. The English friends of the murdered man
knew well that the murderer would never get his
deserts at the hands of his countrymen, but that his
escape would be connived at, for why should not the
poor fellow kill one of these wretched gringos when
he had the chance ? A good many foreigners had
been assassinated lately^ and this prisoner was a
notorious ruffian, so Jerdein and several other
Britishers determined to make an example of him.
They organized an attack on the polijia one dark
night, with the intention of seizing and promptly
lynching him. The whole thing was got up in the
orthodox blood-and-thunder melodramatic fashion.
There was a meeting of the armed conspirators at
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1 62 The Cruise of the Falcon.
midnight, horsed and masked ; the watchword was
" blood." There were twenty in all. Leaving their
horses outside the town they entered it, and at
two a.m. broke into the poli9ia, expecting to find it
almost unguarded ; but the authorities had an inklino
of what was going on — the place was full of armed
serenes. There was a scrimmage, the lights were
extinguished, a dozen revolver-shots were fired with
little effect in the dark, and the whole party of would-
be lynchers fled, mounted their horses, and galloped
across the camp, with the commandante and eighty
horsemen, who turned up suddenly, no one knew
whence, at their heels. There was a good deal of
chaff knocking about Fraile Muerto at their expense
for some time after this. I believe the little native
children even used to run after any of the conspirators
that passed, and greet him with cries of " Blood ! "
"Blood!"
Carnival was in full swing at Fraile Muerto when
we arrived. Buckets of water were being thrown
liberally over passers-by, and every one was armed
with the inevitable pomitOy or squirt, of Florida water.
The dark-eyed little rogues under the black mantillas
made it very hot, or rather, wet and cool, for the
Falcons with the aid of these detestable instruments.
The night was one of revelry ; the twan? of the guitar
was heard through many an open doo^ and at least
a dozen bailes were under way in different parts of the
town ; indeed, there were as many balls &s there were
houses, for all the estan9ieros, rancheros, and gauchos
for leagues around had flocked into Fr'u«e Muerto for
the occasion.
Thoroughly the laughing little camp girls threw
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 163
themselves into the spirit of the wild and beautiful
nativedances. Horse-racing, cock-fighting, and dancing
are the only amusements of the Pampas, and the last
is the only one which the fair sex can share with the
sterner. They certainly are not stingy in their pre-
parations for carnival in these parts ; many pretty mas-
querade dresses were to be seen among the revellers.
This afternoon a grand procession of clumsy waggons,
drawn by handsome oxen, slowly perambulated the
glaring, dusty streets. Waggons and oxen were
tastefully decorated with flowers and coloured dra-
peries. In one waggon was a band of musicians clad
fantastically in yellow coats, that recalled the peni-
tential dress of the victims of the Inquisition ; while
two men worked a huge squirt, or fire-engine, pour-
ing volumes of water right and left — rather too rough
carnival play this, but all good-naturedly taken.
Another waggon was full of pretty chinas^ dressed in
a uniform of red and black, laughing and squirting
scent.
At the Union Club, for we boast a club in our
village, was the grand affair of the evening, the masked
ball for the aristocracy. Thither we repaired. The
club turned out to be merely a fair-sized rgom on the
ground-floor of a house. This was a particularly select
entertainment, yet where the exclusive grandees of
Fraile Muerto drew the line I did not exactly per-
ceive. The door of the ball-room was on the istreet,
and was wide open ; all who wished could look in
and behold the spectacle, could even, as far as I could
see, enter and join the dancers. The commandante
was there with his pretty daughters ; the storekeeper,
too ; and the shoemaker, with his lady and family —
M 2
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1 64 . The Cruise of the Falcon.
these exhausted the list of the native aristocracy".
Then came people with whom " one did not like to
mix," and on whom the daughters of the above swells
turned up their little noses — ^gauchos from the camp,
murderers and cattle-lifters many of them — wild
fellows in native dress and of savage mien. Mate
seemed to be the only refreshment provided, and
nothing there is that will better pull together the
wearied dancer than this invigorating decoction of the-
Paraguayan yerba.
On the morning after our arrival Pdpe insisted on
taking us round his establishment. This caravan-
serai of the Pampas consisted of a large square court-
yard, round three sides of which was a low, one-
storied building — simply a" series of small ropms with
doors opening on the said court ; on the fourth side
were stables and a blacksmith's forge.
" That forge," said he, " has only recently become
my property. It belonged to a Frenchman ; poor
fellow, he drank it all away in absinthe ; got drunk * on
tic,' as you English say, at my bar; so now it is
mine."
'* And now," said P^pe, " come, and I will show you
my museum." He took us into a small room, sur-
rounded with cases of arms and other curiosities.
" These," said he, " are chiefly the spoils of your
countrymen, taken by me in lieu of bad debts ; all
represent so much cafia drunk."
It was a melancholy spectacle — Westley Richards,
Cogswell and Harrison, and the like names were to
be seen on many a fine arm in this collection. Here
were the best shot-guns and rifles out of English and
French workshops: Martini- Henrys, Sniders, Win-
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 165
Chester repeaters, Colt's and Smith and Weston's six-
shooters, swords, sabres, and so on — the relics of the
ill-fated Henley colonists. Here, too, were strange-
made Italian stilettos, some such as are served out
by the secret societies to their initiated, — all pawned
for drink.
But do not imagine from all this that Pdpe is a sort
of Fraile-Muertan Shylock, an unpitying, grasping
usurer ; on the contrary, he is a very kind-hearted
old fellow, who has done many a good turn for our
countrymen, as well as his own, who have come to
grief here. He is beloved by all, save the authorities,
who entertain a wholesome dread of him ; for Pepe
holds very strong opinions as to his fonda being his
castle, and more than one British neer-do-weel or
Italian cut-throat has found a harbour of refuge in
this hostelry. When the serenes come to seize the
refugee, old Pepe will stand at his door and swear
sonorous oaths, and with a hundred horrid blasphe-
mies, threaten to rip up the tripos of any who venture
to cross his threshold against his will.
Apropos of Henley colonists and scapegraces in
general, the old man inflicted on us a long lecture
on the evils of mixing drinks. He told us he only
indulged in one drink at a time ; when, after a month
of one beverage, he felt evil symptoms approaching,
he changed it for another ; six weeks ago absinthe was
his speciality, now it was brandy, but as he was com-
plaining of sleeplessness and other more serious
affections, he was about to knock this off. From
what he told us about the peculiar wholesomeness
and purity of a certain Havannah caiia he had in
stock, I think this will be his next experiment. What
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1 66 The Cruise of the Falcon.
is there in the air of South America that makes
such a thirsty country of it? The Spaniard, the
Portuguese, the Italian, who are so sober in their own
countries, soon acquire out here as strong bibulous
tendencies as the Anglo-Saxon himself.
Carnival was now over, so it was possible to pro-
menade the streets with a dry coat ; and the natives
once more began to attend to the little business they
ever trouble themselves with. We let it be known
throughout the village that we were in want of four
good horses — five-year-olds that were accustomed to
eat maize and other hard food, for the camp-horses
will not do this, and a fortnight's starvation, at the
least, is necessary before they can be induced to
touch it.
A pure-blood Indian offered his services ; he said
he knew every horse for ten leagues round, he would
gallop over the camps and bring every animal in that
he thought might be likely to suit us. A curious old
ruffian this was, short, stumpy, with straight, long,
black hair, laughing, groggy eyes, bandy legs, and a
sort of duck's waddle in the place of a walk — as is
that of all horse-Indians. For three days he galloped
about and brought horse after horse to us for inspec-
tion, while other ragged and wild-looking fellows, who
had heard of our wants, came in with tropillas and
single animals. We pitted the rival vendors against
each other : it was amusing to listen to their voluble
lies and denunciations. After inspecting one tropilla
of twenty we picked out the best two, and made a
bid of thirty Bolivians for them. The owner laughed
us to scorn. " Why forty will be dirt cheap for these
two splendid thoroughbreds ; the Colorado is the
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 167
fastest horse over four cuadros in the whole province
— besides, you spoil my whole tropilla by taking
these two out." And so he argued after the manner
of one that sells a horse, in all times and among all
peoples. After some haggling we brought him down
to thirty-two Bolivians for the two, that is about fifty-
five shillings each — quite a fancy price, but they were
decent animals, and seemed to have anything but
an objection to eating maize when we put some be-
fore them. They were five-year-olds, and in addition
to their other virtues were provided with papers in
proper form, so we purchased them.
In this country the traveller needs no passport, but
his horse does. There are title-deeds to horses here
as to land, and any transfer has to be made before the
judge of the district, and registered in the archives —
a new title, or guiuy stamped with the judicial seal is
then delivered to the purchaser, which describes the
conditions of sale, and is illustrated with a diagram of
the animal's marks. These marks are large characters
branded in very conspicuous fashion on the horse's
flanks, so that there can be no mistake about them.
So it is too with cattle, and the market value of their
hides must be somewhat diminished by the custom ;
but all this is very necessary in this land of horse-
stealing and cattle-lifting.
Our old Indian generally got a few reals out of us
each time he brought a horse round for inspection.
These he used to invest on the replenishing of his
cana jar, from which he was wont to sip freely, as he
galloped over the plain in search of other animals.
This went on for three days : he got drunker and
drunker till he could scarcely talk, and certainly could
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i68 The Cruise of the Falcon.
not walk ; but his seat on horseback, and his dis-
crimination in choosing, and sharpness in selling
horses was not in the least affected. Horse-dealing
is a delightful pursuit for such as he ; the gaucho
loves to prolong the agony of a bargain. He would
rather take less for his horse and linger over the
haggling, than be paid the sum he opens the market
with straight down. We managed to pick up another
decent horse for about thirty shillings, and were now
ready to start.
It was a glorious morning in early March that we
paid P^pe our bill, drank the stirrup-cup, and rode
out of Fraile Muerto in full marching order. Each
of us had his saddle-bags under him, and his blanket
rolled up behind A felt sombrero, top-boots, a
native hide belt six inches broad, with a six-shooter
stuck in it, and a striped poncho over the shoulder,
made each man look quite an orthodox roamer of
the Pampas.
And now commenced a most delightful journey,
concerning the direction of which I will make a few
preliminary remarks.
On looking at a good map it will be seen that wild
tribes of Indians, for the most part, occupy the centre
of South America from north to south, and that the
Europeans occupy a band more or less broad along
either coast. But in this part of the continent a thin
strip of civilization has been carried right across, con-
necting the eastern country of the white man with
that of the west ; the Atlantic with the Pacific ; the
camps of Santa F^ and Buenos Ayres with the Andes
and the Chilian territory. This strip is not a broad
one, and as yet is but sparsely inhabited by the
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The Cruise of tht Falcon. 169
conquerors ; but it is ever and ever broadening. The
line of the frontier forts is ever advancing both north
and south into the lands of the savages. Here at
Fraile Muerto the strip is not very broad. If one
travels but a few leagues to the southward, one
arrives on the Indian territory of the Pampas — an
almost unknown country, on which the white man
has no footing — even to the deserts of Patagonia and
the cold shores of Magellan's Straits. If one travels
to the northward again, one will soon reach another
Indian territory, that of the Gran Chaco, an unex-
plored waste of forest and jungle and swamp that lies
between the rivers Parana and Paraguay on the east,
and the provinces of Santiago Salta, &c., on the west ;
and stretches north, through latitudes claimed by
Bolivia and Brazil, who knows how far into the
steaming tropics. It is down the centre of this strip
of civilization that the Central Argentine Railway is
carried, a line that is destined to be the trunk line
of the whole South American system when these
countries are opened out.
We proposed to ride along the line as far as Cor-
doba, and there leave it to travel by the old tropilla-
track to Santiago and Tucuman. It is by this route
that of old the caravans used to wend their slow way
from Potosi to Buenos Ayres.
From Buenos Ayres to Tucuman by this tropilla-
track, which winds a good deal, is 1119 English
miles, according to an old Argentine postal road-
book which a friend lent me. By following this
route we should see a good deal of the country, and
also much variety of scenery. It was curious to
observe the gradual change in the vegetation as we
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1 70 The Cruise of the Falcon.
advanced northward to tropical Tucuman, which is
eight degrees nearer the equator than Buenos Ayres
is. First comes the green Pampas of Santa F6, where
the rain-fall is considerable and the climate temperate ;
then gradually drier lands, the camps of Cordoba,
where water is scarce, and the sky is cloudless for
long months of drought ; then the regions of the
mont^, the bush that forms the northern limit of the
Pampas ; and then a hotter and drier land, where
spinous bushes and giant cacti of many species can
alone extract nourishment from the arid sandy soil,
encrusted as it is with glittering salt. Finally another
change comes, a range of stupendous mountains
blocks the horizon, the Sierras of Tucuman and
Aconquija, branches of the Andes, whose summits
attain the height of 17,000 feet, mothers of many
rivers. Under their giant shadows spreads a great
plain, a land of streams and much rain, a steaming
hot, unhealthy region, breeding fatal fevers, yet
rich withal, with great plantations of sugar-cane
waving in the tepid breeze, ana brilliant orange-
groves ever noisy with parrots and other gorgeous
birds of the tropics — for this is the province of
Tucuman, known far and wide as the garden of
South America.
I must not let the memories of that delightful ride
lead me to the occupying of undue space in this
book with the story of it, so let us prick our horses
into a *' little gallop " as they call it here, and speed
across the plains alongside the straight line of the
railway.
We took it easily at first for sake of selves and
horses, and made a six days* ride of it to Cordoba.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 171
Our first day's journey was across a parched country
of burnt earth, scant and coarse pasture, with here
and there a clump of algarrobas. The grass in this
part of the Pampas does not cover the earth in a rich
velvety carpet as in Santa Fd, but grows in scattered
tufts with bare baked earth between — a very grass
of the desert, wiry and prickly. Numerous eagles,
vultures, owls, and bizcachas, seemed to be the sole
inhabitants of this wilderness, a desolate expanse,
with a horizon as is usual on the Pampas and most
characteristic of these plains — vague, mysterious, im-
mense — seeming to be infinitely off, and melting into
a waving mirage, as if into some strange magic-land
far beyond. And a strange land it is that does lie
beyond, for there is the wilderness of the Indian, a
desert of peril and thirst and death, stretching — so
immense is it — as Head writes, " from tropic forests
of palm in the north to eternal snows in the dreary
south."
But there is one sign of civilization about us, and
that with its contrast tends only to increase the sense
of solemnity and desolation. Only two thin bars of
iron running parallel in the very straightest line, till
they meet in the far perspective like a wedge, and
disappear in the trembling horizon. But this in-
significant-looking line of the railway has tended as
much to carry progress and justice into dark lands,
as even that other thin red line, of which we English-
men are so justly proud. The thin edge of the wedge
of civilization has now been driven deep into the bar-
barism of the Pampas, notwithstanding the fanatical
obstruction of Cordoban priests, and the vain opposi-
tion of novelty-hating gauchos, who tried to lasso
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the engine as it passed, and found that they had
something more stubborn than an infuriated bull to
deal with.
We rode on in the teeth of the hot north wind, till
we came to where a bush-fire was smouldering over
some leagues of country. All the grass had been
consumed, the algarroba-trees had been all more or
less carbonized, and tongues of fire leapt up hungrily
here and there. Between the hot sky above, and the
baking ashes beneath us, we soon acquired a very
respectable thirst, that an old toper would have given
much for ; but, alas ! we had no means of alleviating
it, so it was not of much use to us.
Before dusk we reached the station of Ballesteros.
We expected to find a little town here, but could per-
ceive nothing but two or three wretched tenements,
none of which was an inn.
The only decent-looking establishment was the
railway station ; so we repaired thither, and to our
delight found that the station-master was an English-
man, Mr. Coleson. He received us with great hospi-
tality, and we did justice, after our exhilarating ride,
to the hearty supper he put before us, as did our
horses to their alfalfa and algarroba pods.
We were now gradually leaving the region of the
foreigners. But few British estan9ieros are to be
found beyond Fraile Muerto, and we were to change
the comfortable homesteads and civilized ways of the
gringo for the at any rate as hospitable, if more
primitive, homes and manners of the old Andalusian
colonists.
There are several native estan9ias round Ballesteros,
so of course a juez, a commisario of police, and a
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 73
commandante have been put in authority over the
rising pueblo. There is some amusing scandal run-
ning about concerning these great men, which is
worth repeating, so illustrative is it of life in these
wild camps. What I am about to relate will seem
almost incredible to those who have passed their
lives among the well-ordered communities of Europe;
but here, be it remembered, we are in the midst of a
half-barbaric people, and a people that have never
known what justice is, and whose state of civilization
is in many respects far inferior to that of our recent
foes, the Kaffirs of South Africa.
Each of the three functionaries I mentioned above
imagines himself to be the boss of the place; for their
powers are rather vague, and they are hardly men
capable of understanding nice distinctions. Of the
three the judge, I believe, alone can write, and that
only to the extent of being able to sign his name to
official documents. This legal luminary receives no
fixed pay, but is supposed to reserve one-half of all
the fees he receives and the fines he exacts, a method
which, of course, leads to unlimited extortion. The
poor old gentleman, who looks more like a gaucho
than a judge, had suffered a run of very bad luck of
late. His cattle had perished of drought, fees and
fines did not come in, for people would not be married
or commit crimes as they should, so he was at last at
his wits* end even how to procure a sufficiency of
beef to keep up his judicial proportions. About a
week before our arrival he hit upon the following
happy plan. He procured a few bottles of vile gin
on credit from the pulperia, and invited all his friends
to a little carnival baile at his house. Several of
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174 ^^^^ Cruise of the Falcon.
these abused his hospitality and his gin to such an
extent, that on leaving towards the early hours of the
morning, they conimenced to reel about the township
in a boisterous and unbecoming manner, and waxed
quarrelsome to boot. This was duly reported to
their host, who summoned them all to his presence,
severely censured them, and then fined each offender
five pesos. He dined sumptuously every night for a
vi^eek afterwards.
Another instructive incident recently occurred at
Ballesteros. It seems that a certain unfortunate debtor
was so pestered by his importunate creditors that he
fled into another province. It happened that a store-
keeper here owed certain moneys to the fugitive. On
learning this our old friend the judge, losing no time,
hurried round to attach the debt, with the intention
of apportioning it among the creditors, after, of course,
deducting a fair percentage for court fees. But, alas !
he was too late. It happened that the commissary of
police was one of the creditors, and bad wisely anti-
cipated all the others. He had visited the store-
keeper, and obliged him to deliver the whole sum
over to him. A stormy meeting between judge and
commissary ensued in the open road before the
assembled populace. The judge demanded a restitu-
tion of the moneys by the commissary. The latter
refused to do anything of the kind, and openly accused
the old gentleman of desiring to appropriate all to
himself and rob the creditors. Thereupon the judge,
gliding over the retort courteous and other interme-
diate stages of discussion, passed on at once to the
countercheck quarrelsome, and said : — " Senor Com-
misario, you lie ;" at the same time striking him
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 175
across the face with his rehe^ique, or whip of plaited
hide. On this the commisario retorted by knocking
the judge down with the back of his sword, called
assistance, and arrested that high functionary. Next
he had him placed on a horse with his feet tied under-
neath its belly, and marched him off to Fraile Muerto,
where he put him in the stocks.
Barbarous enough, too, as a rule, are these camp-
town stocks. There is no convenience for sitting
down as in our comfortable old English stocks, where
Hudibras took his ease. Here the feet are imprisoned
at some height from the ground, while the body is
left to shift for itself, dangling down often with the
head undermost. In this uncomfortable position an
unfortunate wretch is often left untended and without
food for days, through sun, and rain, and dew.
Verily a cruel people these Indo-Spanish, a crueller
cross of two cruel races. The tortures of the old
Inquisition could not have been worse than some of
the horrible South American punishments of the pre-
sent day — the stacado, for instance. In this the
wretched victim is stretched out on his back on a pile
of knapsacks. Four stakes are stuck in the ground
round him at some distance off. Thongs of raw hide
are drawn quite taut from these and attached tightly
to his hands and feet; then the knapsacks are removed
from under him, and he is left suspended. Presently
the hot sun shrinks up and tightens the cruel thongs,
his limbs are drawn out with a slow but immense
power. He experiences all the agonies of the rack.
The joints are often pulled out of their sockets by
the fearful strain ; and if the poor wretch does not die,
he is left a helpless cripple for life.
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176 The Cruise of the Falcon.
During last year's revolution at Buenos Ayres art
officer, suspecting his servant of theft, ordered him to
be put to this torture till he confessed his crime.
The fellow was stretched out in an open place at the
bottom of the garden of some friends of mine. For
four days and nights his groans and cries of agony
appalled all the foreigners who dwelt near, and
delicate ladies were made seriously ill by these
sounds of Inquisition tortures enacted at their very
gates.
.But to return to our sheep, that poor old judge ;
he seems to be ever getting into scrapes. Another
rather good story, and an authentic one, is told of
him. Some time back he was playing at cards in
the baker's house with a capataz of railway navvies.
The capataz was unlucky, and lost considerably.
Suspecting the judge of foul play, he refused to pay
up. Thereupon the judge determined to sue him,
but being so far conversant with law as to know that
nemo in sud lite potest judicare, he assigned this
debt of honour to the baker, who then hailed the
offending capataz before him. Our judge solemnly
listened to the case, inflicted a fine, and sentenced the
defendant to imprisonment until it was paid. But
the capataz was a sharp man, and found means to
repay the judge for this judicial farce. He went off"
to another, I suppose a superior, judge, who though
he did not think it right to set aside the decision of
his learned brother, at any rate inflicted a heavy fine
on him, for countenancing unlicensed gambling. In
this land of liberty a licence is needful for nearly
everything — a game of cards, a private party, or a
ball.
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The Cruis3 of the Falcon. 177
Such are the magistrates who are supposed to
administer justice in the camps ; petty tyrants who
imagine that their powers have no limit, whom the
fear of assassination alone keeps in check. The poor
people, the friendless widows whom they can bully
and rob with impunity, are of course quite unaware
that there are higher tribunals to which there is an
appeal from the decisions of these ignorant and unjust
judges. Perhaps it is as well after all that they are
so unaware in this land, where, if rumour be true, the
highest as well as the lowest official has his price.
The laws of this republic are excellent in theory,
codified as they are after the schemes of Bentham
and the French jurisconsults, but men capable of
administering them are sadly wanting.
The law as regards murder here is very extraordi-
nary; too harsh and too lenient at the same time.
Accidental and justifiable homicide is placed more
or less on the same footing as wilful murder. Thus,
if an honest man by accident or in self-defence kills
another, he is imprisoned awhile and then sent into
the army to serve on the Indian frontier ; no pleasant
and luxurious station that. Again, if a villain stab
an old man in the back to rob him of his little hoard,
he likewise is transformed into a soldier as a punish-
ment, and like all others has his chance of rising in
the ranks. The late station-master of Ballesteros was
brutally murdered by a peon. He is by no means
the only British station-master that has been assassi-
nated at his post on these railways. His murderer
is now a non-commissioned officer, and was pointed
out to me at the head of an escort of prisoners on
the march.
VOL. I. N
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1 78 The Cruise of the Falcon.
This night I am writing my notes in a bedroom,
with a candle in front of me on the table. The light
has attracted all the insects of the neighbourhood, who
are immolating themselves wholesale in the tempting
flame, a very entomological museum that only South
America could turn out at so short a notice. There
are all manner of moths and beetles and strange
creatures of all sizes and shapes and numbers of legs —
some lean, some fat— of all colours; some very un-
canny of appearance ; and all humming and buzzing
in different notes and keys. Verily, this is the land
of bichos ; every month has bichos of its own pecu-
liar to itself, but the omnipresent mosquito flourishes
through all the months. Of this plague, too, there
are many species ; some are enormous fellows striped
like tigers, and capable, I should imagine, of sucking
your blood through a thick hide boot ; others small
and black, but no less irritating. But enough, it
almost makes one swear to think of them !
That word bicho, by the way, is a very useful
one. I suppose originally it was intended to signify
beetle, but it means a good deal more than that now.
It is more comprehensive in its meanings than even
the Yankee bug. The term bicho is used here to
signify not only an insect but any strange beast.
The gaucho calls the tiger a great bicho. If he
were to perceive any animal — say an elephant — that
were new to him, he would speak of it as that bicho.
Not only to animals but even to inanimate things
is the term applied. I heard a native call a grain
unknown to him a bicho. Old P^pe, of Fraile Muerto,
would call his morning draught his bicho ; and people
talk here of putting spirit in their water to kill the
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 79
bicho, and very careful they are, too, to do this. The
water bicho has a poor chance indeed with the
average South American.
A violent storm of thunder, wind, and rain re-
freshed the parched soil this night, and was very
grateful after the recent heats.
N 2
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i8o The Cruise of the Falcon.
CHAPTER XL
On the morrow we saddled betimes and rode through
the town, or rather nucleus of a town, consisting as it
did of a store, one other house, a pair of stocks, and
a race-course.
We galloped over the plain, brighter and more
beautiful after the rain. , Here by mont^ of prickly
bushes, under whose lee the grass was pressed down,
showing where the wild beasts had crouched for
shelter during the stof m. Here by clumps of feathery
pampa grass, and over greenest pastures thickly
dotted with the scarlet and purple blossoms of ver-
benas and polyanthi. A south-west wind blew in
our faces, odorous of mint and vanilla and a thousand
flowers, and fresh and invigorating after the norte of
yesterday, dry and hot as it was from its passage over
a thousand leagues of parched steppes.
Who can do justice to these glorious Pampas — to
the irresistible fascination of this vast expanse of
grass and flowers — to the intoxicating delight of a
gallop over them at breezy dawn, and to that peculiar
quiet charm and sense of ecstatic calm that subdues
even the most unimaginative man, when sitting by
the evening encampment he is a spectator of that
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 8 1
magnificent appearance — a sunset on these ocean-like
solitudes ? There is no scenery, not even of the great
mountains, that so overwhelms a man with a sense of
his littleness, with a consciousness of what an immense
unknown there is around him, as that of the South
American steppes, where all Nature is so vast and
vague.
Just before we entered the township of Villa Maria,
which we had chosen as the destination of our second
day's journey, we traversed a pretty wilderness of
rank weeds, ten feet in height, all new to us, luxuriant,
of many scents and flowers, and noisy with song of
bird and hum of cicala. Riding through this we
suddenly came upon a strange scene worthy of the
brush of a Long. Dark between us and the golden
sunset, there came towards us through the varied
vegetation a troop of some thirty women, walking in
slow and solemn procession ; dusky half-breeds and
Indians these, with their shoulders and raven hair
covered with the black shawl of the country, and
barefooted. Before them walked four girls who bore
a little gaudily-painted image standing erect on a
stretcher. This was a celebrated saint, who was now
on his way to pay a visit to a neighbouring saint.
Every native likes if possible to have a little wooden
saint of his own in his rancho. It is believed that
these saints are of sociable disposition and like to
meet each other at times. So San Martin, in Lopez's
rancho, is carried to visit Santa Rosa, in Gonzalez's
rancho ; an excuse for much cana-drinking and gam-
bling. Some of these saints are celebrated for the
miraculous cures they perform. Such a one's saint,
for instance, is great at the curing, of rheumatism.
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1 8 2 The Cruise of the Falcon.
When this is the case, he is often a good thing to his
owner, who lets him out to sufferers at so much a day.
A man will even pawn his saint sometimes ; but this
is looked upon as unlucky, and the saint has been
known to lose his virtues after having been thus treated.
The priests do not much encourage this system of
private saints — they like to have a monopoly in them,
I suppose, and to act as go-betweens to saints and
sufferers. Far from my intention is it to ridicule any
of the rites of the Roman Catholic Church, but the
religion of the South American camps is not the
Roman Catholic religion — and none deplore this more
than the educated dignitaries of the Church at Buenos
Ayres — but a superstition of the very grossest kind,
encouraged by an ignorant native priesthood, which,
as Mr. Bates says in his excellent work on South
America, "on everything pertaining to morals and
the ordinary decencies of life, has its own opinions and
ideas, which are certainly somewhat at variance with
those usually entertained in Europe on such matters."
Villa Maria is an important little place, being at
the junction of the Cordoba railway and the new and
yet unfinished line to Mendoza and the Andes. . Here
we passed the night in an hotel kept by M. Albert, a
Frenchman, who prepared for us a capital dinner that
reminded us of Europe, and which was washed down
with wines from the slopes of the Cordilleras — the
vintages of Mendoza, Rioja,and San Juan — which are
by no means despicable.
We were now experiencing for the first time the
attacks of that plague of the Pampas, the bkho
Colorado, This minute pest burrows into the lower
half of the human leg, and there proceeds to lay its
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 8
J
eggs under the skin ; when the young bicho is hatched
he works his way out of his cradle to the outer world,
a performance that produces the most intolerable
itching. These little beasts do not attack one singly
but in hundreds, and in some cases produce nasty
sores, but aguardiente, or other spirit, well rubbed in,
generally brings relief.
On our third day we rode to the camp railway
station of Chanares, a distance of only twenty-two
miles ; but here we had to halt for the night, as a
waterless, pastureless wilderness lay between this and
the next stage, Laguna Larga, forty miles further on.
This day we perceived a broad purple streak along
the horizon like a sea of blood. On approaching it
this proved to be thickly-growing polyanthi, covering
a vast area of plain. Not only a land of bichos is this,
but of thorns. As we unsaddled our horses, and lay
ourselves under a big mimosa among the ants for our
midday halt and siesta, we were made unpleasantly
aware of how thorny a land we were approaching.
The grass of this arid portion of the Pampas is a very
grass of the desert, stiff, hard, sharp as a needle.
Every plant and bush and tree is covered with thorns.
There are balls of seed, too, studded round with cruel
needles, like porcupines ; if you pluck these, your
hands are filled with the minute and irritating points.
Some of these seed-balls are as big as large plums, and
roll along with the wind. When they strike one's coat
they anchor themselves there and cling so tenaciously,
that in wrenching them away much of the material
of the cloth comes away also.
Our poor horses did not seem to appreciate this sort
of vegetation in the way of pasture, but the algarrobas
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184 The Cruise of the Falcon.
were covered with pods, which we plucked and fed
them with, to their evident gratification. At Chanares,
jovial Mr. O'Donohue, the station-master, and his kind
wife received us with true Irish hospitality. After
our asado and praties — unwonted luxury— we camped
out for the night on the platform, and slept the sleep
of the just until midnight, when the train to Cordoba
thundered in. " Caramba ! what a lot of passengers
for Cordoba," I heard the guard say as he saw our
prostrate forms. " Ah, no, it's those yacht fellows ;
for I can see Don Arturo's nose peeping above his
blanket." The guards of the trains — old English
sailors most of them — knew us by this time, and were
wont to exchange greetings with us, as we passed
each other daily on the line— for the train runs to
Cordoba one day, and returns to Rosario the next.
That particular nose, by which they recognized us
this night, was one of the great features of the Falcon ;
its owner is very proud of it, and, indeed, once seen,
it is not soon to be forgotten, with its noble propor-
tions coloured by the suns of many climes.
Our fourth day's journey was to Laguna Larga,
a longer ride than usual. To one travelling over
these plains each day brings some new feature in the
vegetation. This day we crossed a large space where
grew a grass three feet in height, topped with the
most lovely feathery seeds; these, waving in the
wind, caused the plain to assume the appearance
of a rolling sea of softest wool or down — a most
pleasing and curious effect. We noticed how far more
numerous the birds were in this region, where the
Pampas merged into jungle, than in treeless Santa
F^. Peewits, vultures, eagles, and many other varieties
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 1 85
were here, while a vast multitude of green parroquets
kept up a perpetual chatter over our heads. An
immense cloud of martins too was flying north, doubt-
lessly emigrating from the impending winter of bleak
Patagonia ; a wonderful number of them. Many were
resting awhile on the telegraph wires ; they crowded
on them, sitting close together, fluttering and chat-
tering — living festoons of birds stretching a league
away.
We then crossed a very parched district, waterless
and treeless, where a strong stink of the skunk was
the prevailing odour of the sultry air. Towards mid-
day we sighted right ahead a square, black mass, rising
conspicuously over the level plain. This turned out to
be a tank in which the scant water of a neighbouring
laguna is collected after rainfall in order to supply
the railway engines. We called a halt, unsaddled
our horses, and indulged in a welcome draught of the
water — brackish, muddy, and tepid though it was.
A native was in charge of the tank ; beside the hut
in which he lived there was another wretched mud
rancho, into whose roof a stick was thrust, with a
white rag flying at its summit, indicating that this
was a grog-shop ; for even this ungodly, houseless spot
in the wilderness must needs have its pulperia.
It is astonishing how far off* the thirsty traveller
can distinguish that blessed white flag in the clear
atmosphere of these level steppes. We lit a fire by
the tank, and bringing forth from our saddle-bagis
some ribs of beef we had brought with us, pierced
them with our iron asador (spit), which we then stuck
into the ground in the midst of the fire. Thus was
soon ready for us that national dish of South America,
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1 86 The Cruise of the Falcon.
the asado. A luxury it is, too, out in the camps, with
the sauce of a healthy appetite ; but an asado eaten
with knife and fork, within doors, is hardly to be re-
commended. We washed this down with some cana
from the pulperia, enjoyed a siesta, and then rode on
to the station of Laguna Larga, where Mr. Wynn, the
station-master, who was expecting us, had prepared
a good square supper for the travellers. This night,
like the last, we passed on the platform comfortably
enough.
Early in the afternoon of our fifth day's ride we
reached the banks of the Rio Segundo, a river that
rises in the Sierras of Cordoba, and ultimately flows
into the Mar Chiquita, an inland lake whose waters
never reach the sea, but are absorbed by the thirsty
wilderness. The Rio Segundo is here a broad, rapid
stream of clear water flowing over a sandy bed ; ex-
tensive sand-banks border its edges, backed by banks
overgrown with tall grasses and shrubs, a jungle in-
habited by many pumas and parrots. We met a
native, who gave us instructions where to cross the
river so as to avoid the quicksands. The water was
low, so we found no difficulty in fording. This is by
no means always the case. Many men and cattle are
lost at this ford yearly. In a real crescente it is, of
course, quite impossible to effect a passage. These
crescentes of the rivers of the Pampas are as terrible
and sudden as those of South Africa. A few hours
heavy rain in the far Sierras, and down comes the
flood with a thunderous roar— sweeping all before it,
bearing down on its swollen waters huge trees and
drowned cattle and the wrecks of habitations.
The water of this river is very wholesome, and is
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 187
strongly impregnated with the sarsaparilla that grows
thickly on its banks in places. Having effected a safe
passage we gave our horses a rest, while we indulged
in the very unwonted luxury of a bath. For this
purpose we waded to a pretty, willowy island in the
middle of the stream. No sooner were we in than a
group of girls came down to the bank, undressed with
the utmost sang-froid and entered the river not far
from us, splashing about merrily, with their long black
tresses falling almost to their heels. Our presence
in no way discomposed them ; the Indian and half-
breed damsel is not troubled with an excess of
modesty.
The little township and station of Rio Segundo is
but a mile distant from the river-bank. Here we
passed the night. Mr. Mott, the station-master, gave
us much information as to the profusion of game in
the neighbouring months. The pumas are almost
the only sportsmen who revel in this grand hunting-
ground, where are to be found innumerable wood-
pigeons, parrots, three varieties of partridges, teal,
snipe, duck, geese, chunas, ostriches, jaguars, deer,
and many other beasts and birds.
The next, our sixth, day's march, was to be our last
in the company of the railway line ; we were no
longer to have the certain hospitality of a British
station-master to look forward to'at the end of each
day's journey, for this night we were to reach the city
of Cordoba,
The Sierras now loomed distinctly on the north-
west horizon, refreshing indeed to the eye after these
hundreds of leagues of unbroken plain. We greeted
the hills once more with almost as keen a delight as
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1 88 The Cruise of the Falcon.
the mariner the loom of land after a long voyage on
the plains of the salt sea.
The country between the Segundo and Cordoba is
of a very pleasing character. We had evidently left
the Pampas proper at last, and were entering the
region of the bush that stretches hence to the tropic
forests of the north. We rode through groves of
algarroba and beautiful flowering shrubs, carpeted
with the variegated blossoms of verbena, polyanthus,
and other plants. The land, no longer of a dead level,
was slightly undulating. As we were galloping down
the pleasant glades one of us shouted in delight,
" Hurrah ! here is a peach-tree covered with fruit."
We all drew near, but were doomed to disappoint-
ment It was but some poisonous plum of the monte,
amber of hue, and comely, but acrid in taste, and not
any kin to the familiar old fruit we had mistaken
it for.
At midday we hobbled our horses, plucked some
algarrobas for them, and lunched off some sardines,
biscuit, and cana we had brought with us. As I was
sitting down I suddenly perceived two bright eyes
glaring at me from a large hole in the ground. I
dropped my sardine, and put my hand to my knife,
not knowing what strange beast this might be, and
what were his intentions ; but I soon perceived that
it was but an innocent, amiable creature after all,
against whose character I have never heard any accu-
sation brought — an unlovely scaly monster, somewhat
resembling an alligator, yet innoffensive enough, being
only a poor iguana that was peeping out of his house
with no evil design, merely wondering what we
intruders on his solitude might be. I presented him
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V
oc
i
o
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 189
with a bit of biscuit, which accepting gratefully, he
retired unobtrusively into his house.
At last we reached a ridge overlooking a vast
expanse of country : to our astonishment, for we were
unaware that we had been ascending so much, and
never expected to see Cordoba so far below us'. It
was a magnificent view : beyond the jungle that sloped
downwards from where we stood, there lay extended
a vast level plain, well watered with many silver
streams, bordered with rows of poplars. Arable
fields and pastures stretched far to a distant range of
grand mountains, swelling range behind range. Lofty
Indeed they seemed to us after the interminable
plains, and indeed some of the summits of these
Sierras are 7000 feet in height ; and in the centre of
this plain, in the bend of a broad river winding out
of sight into distant groves, we perceived the fair
white city, with many domes and spires of churches,
some of a bright white stone, others of marble, others '
gleaming with gold. To us, coming straight from the
wilderness, this sudden first view of Cordoba was as
that of the Delectable City to the worn pilgrim of
that quaint history which ^s so delicious to the mind
with its old-world fragrance.
Yes, before us was the world-renowned Cordoba,
the Cordoba of the Jesuit fathers, the city of the
churches, and the ringing of bells, the sanctimonious
town of priests and doctors, the oasis of learning in
the wilderness, in whose antique university how many
generations of youth have acquired the Aristotelian
philosophy, and all the humanities, and inhumanities
to boot, if report be true. A mysterious place this
ancient stronghold of the much-dreaded society of
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I90 Tlie Cruise of the Falcon.
Jesus, in the heart of South America, with a false-
learned and narrow-minded population to this day,
over which the priests have retained a great deal of
their old power. When the railway was first brought
up to the gates of Cordoba, the frailes felt that the
old days had gone for ever, and that the dreaded
light was coming, the old order changing for the new.
In every church they preached fiercely against the
accursed thing, and, had they dared, would have
urged the pious citizens to tear up the rails, and
cursed the fatal iron way.
But let us linger no longer on the hill that over-
looks the ancient city, but ride boldly in, more boldly
far than we could have done in the olden days, when
the Inquisition with its tortures awaited the heretic
gringo who dared venture here. From the ridge
upon which we stood the track gradually widened
until it became quite a decent road ; for Cordoba,
like all other cities in this land, is a mere oasis of
civilization in the wilderness ; its streets are continued
as roads but a few hundreds of yards outside the
town, and then dwindle away to scarce distinguishable
tracks.
As we descended we became conscious of a great
and sudden change in the Nature around us. No
longer the level plain, so stoneless that one could not
so much as find the smallest pebble wherewith to
threaten a snarling cur, but here, at the edge of the
Sierras, the granite peeped out occasionally through
the soil, a country of rocks and of running water,
and where the feet of horses are shod with iron, as is
never the case on the Pampas.
Across the road and alongside of it ran with much
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 191
sound streams of clear sparkling water. We passed,
too, huge waggons, slow, groaning horribly, drawn
by oxen — waggons of hard red wood, in the con-
struction of which no iron had been used, not even
for one nail or tire of wheel, but the parts of which
were lashed and laced together with thongs of raw
hide.
Our poor unshodden horses of the Pampas were
affrighted at the strange surroundings, they stumbled
and shied at every step ; .never bad they before
been down so steep an incline, felt such stony
ground under their feet, or heard such sound of
running water. There was a little water-course that
was carried across the road in a sunken wooden
trough, or canal, some eighteen inches broad at most ;
though small, it babbled along noisily enough. The
horses could not make this out at all ; they sniffed
at it suspiciously, shook their heads, became very
uneasy, and refused to cross it. Ultimately, by dint
of much persuasion of whip and spur, they did jump
it ; each in his turn pulled himself together, took a
tremendous leap, and cleared it by yards and yards —
a ridiculous spectacle ; the prudent creatures evidently
were determined to make no mistake about it, and
give as wide a berth as possible to the uncanny
phenomenon.
There are no suburbs to this city, the wilderness
stretches down to the edge of its mediaeval streets
and squares. Just outside, it is true, there is a
wretched ceinture of rubbish — offal, bones, broken
bricks, and the like, among which, like jackals,
dwells a miserable pack of squatters — a low type of
half-breeds, hideous and repulsive in aspect. Their
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192 The Cruise of the Falcon.
squalid mud ranches are scattered pell-mell over this
disreputable locality without any pretension to order.
We rode into the city, which seems a well laid-out
and agreeable place at its first aspect. We traversed
long straight streets of one-storied white houses with
the usual prison-like grated windows looking on the
street ; clear water flowing down every gutter. The
streets here are paved with stone ; on hearing the
clanging of their hoofs on these our horses became
almost unmanageable in their alarm, and when they
did quiet down a little, proceeded with steps gingerly
and timid, as if red-hot iron was beneath their feet.
We repaired to the ** Hotel d'Europa," to which we
had been recommended, and sent our horses to a
stable to be looked after during our stay at Cordoba,
with injunctions that they should be shod, another
new experience for the poor beasts. The genial host
of the " Europa," who is a German, made us very
comfortable in his excellently managed hostelry.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 193
CHAPTER XII.
On the morrow after our arrival we sallied forth to
inspect the city. We found ourselves once more in
a civilized centre, for tramways, American bars, and
French cafh have followed the railway, and now
relieve the sense of oppression and ennui which per-
vades the atmosphere of the slow, grave old university
town.
We had been awakened early by the ringing of
many bells in many old churches, so had a good day
before us to explore the streets and handsome squares
of the city of priests and women. For, indeed, priests
and women seem to form the bulk of the population
of Cordoba. Thtfrailes are a sour-looking lot enough,
though some of the young clericals are regular /^//^j-
maitres in their way, and seem to have quite a femi-
nine taste for lace and millinery. The women are
not gifted with much beauty, with the exception, of
course, of those of the high caste — pure white Spanish
beauties, who are invariably dressed in the latest Paris
fashion. But of these there are but very few ; all the
others are half-breeds, of a peculiarly disagreeable,
dark, muddy complexion, and possessing the harsh
Indian type of feature. Indeed, the population here-
abouts has no right to rank itself with white men at
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194 '^^^ Cruise of the Falcon.
all ; these people are but the mongrel descendants
of Indians that have been tamed by the Jesuits. This
extensive crossing of the Spanish with the Indian
blood has, in the opinion of those who know, proved
to be a great curse to these countries, for the result
has been a useless breed that cumbers the face of the
earth. Not as in North America, where the aboriginal
races have vanished like smoke before the advance
of the white man and his civilization ; here the Indian
blood has mingled with that of the Latin colonists,
overpowered it indeed, and imbued it with its own
barbarism, so that in many regions the conquerors
have adopted the manners, dress, and even language,
of the conquered tribes.
The negro and mulatto belles of the West Indies
know how to set off and match their complexion and
peculiar style of beauty with appropriate dress and
gaudy tints ; but the Indo-Spanish half-breed and
china of Cordoba envelopes herself from head to foot
in a shabby-looking black shawl, or sheet, which,
especially when rusty with age, does not tend to
show off to advantage her muddy face. Though her
toilette be thus simple, and does not entail heavy
milliner's and chapellerie bills, the china belle is very
particular in one respect — boots ; she must have a
pair of nice-fitting French-styled boots. No more
acceptable present can you make your Cordoban
sweetheart, should you have the bad taste to possess
one, than una par de botas nuevas. Cordoba, by the
way, like its namesake in old Spain, is a great place
for the working of leather, and its damsels evidently
consider that there is "nothing like leather," and
despise all other additions to their doubtful charms.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 195
When the traveller has explored the cathedral
with its massive gilding, the university, and some of
the curious old churches — life is too short to visit
them all — he cannot do better than light his cigar
and stroll round the two great squares — the Plaza
25"* de Mayo and the Alameda. There is a great
contrast between these two. The latter is strictly
old world and Spanish ; a solemnity pervades the
severe enclosure, deserted as it generally is, save
for some silent stalking fraile with shovel hat, or
black draped china, well harmonizing with the spot.
This square is laid out with strictest mathe-
matical regularity; round it are the usual white,
grated-windowed, one-storied houses, with no shop-
windows gay with display of goods — lifeless, prison-
like. A lake of water occupies the centre of the
Alameda^ in the middle of which is an island cut
into some mathematical figure, with a bright white
temple of Greek architecture on it. There is a
cold, artificial, confined look about the whole
place, that seems strikingly emblematic of the
old life of the ecclesiastical stronghold, austere,
working in a narrow groove, never looking beyond
its own limited horizon of the cloister wall. Rows
of fine willows once bordered this lake, but during
the tremendous hurricane that swept over Cordoba
two years back, all these were uprooted. This must
have been a fearful tempest, it bent double every
heavy iron'and brazen cross that tops the manifold
steeples of this city of churches, and thus they still
remain as we saw them, sloping all one way, a sign
to the traveller of what a South American pampero
can do at times.
O 2
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This dreamy Alameda, so lonely and stern of
aspect, that one would imagine it had never been
awakened to any show of life, save by the excitement
of some autoda-fioi heathen Indians, does wake up
in a languid sort of way once a day. Towards the
late afternoon when the shadows of the Sierras come
down to the city, and the southern cross with a
myriad stars begins to illumine the delightful night
of inland South America — the haughty Spanish
beauties come forth in their carriages, and drive
round and round the lake for three-quarters of an
hour or so, while a considerable crowd of chinas and
others of the lower orders promenade on foot, marvel-
ling at the white beauty of the upper caste.
The other square — the Plaza de 25"* de Mayo, is
in the centre of the city, and is far more lively than
the gloomy Alameda, for it is here that the energetic
money-making gringos most do congregate. Fine
shops and brilliant caf^s surround it. At one side
is the old Gothic cathedral, perhaps the finest speci-
men of mediaeval architecture in the new world. A
pleasant and well-tended garden occupies the centre,
with two avenues crossing it diagonally from the
corners of the square, as is the fashion of most of
the old Spanish plazas ; shrubs, splashing fountains,
and winding walks fill up the interspace. Here every
evening the military band plays excellently the en-
chanting airs of old Spain.
A visit to the North Market in the early morning
is worth the while to the European stranger. Ugly
old women and girls, half-bred Indians from the
country, sit on the bare ground all over the quaint old
enclosure ; not chattering overmuch, nor importuning
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 197
the passer-by to purchase, but rather stolidly suck-
ing the perpetual mat^ through the bombilla, each
wrapped in the black funereal shroud I have de-
scribed, squatting in front of her small stock of
wares. Sonnie have but a little mound of algarroba-
pods, maize, or alfalfa before them, about six-penny-
worth in all, which nevertheless they have perhaps
brought hither several leagues, travelling on foot
through the night. Others vend melons, wheaten
cakes, and strange fruits ; while hide horse-gear, old
and new, has its separate corner of the market allotted
to it ; and boots, of course — that chief production of
Cordoba, — are temptingly laid out in long rows before
the marketing china.
We loafed about the ancient city for three days,
made a trip to some of the pleasant vales at the foot
of the Sierras, and then prepared for our ride to Tucu-
man. There is an English photographer established in
Cordoba — who alone of any we met had undertaken
the journey from here to Santiago del Estero. From
him accordingly we procured a description of the old
tropilla-track, and a list of the good halting-places.
This track, which is a portion of that great route
across South America along which in the olden days
the strings of jingling mules were wont to bring the
bars of silver from the mines of Potosi to Buenos
Ayres, has been deserted by travellers since the con-
struction of the Tucuman railway. The caravans of
waggons from the interior now alone make use of it.
From Cordoba to Santiago del Estero, the capital of
the province of the same name, is according to some
130 Cordoban leagues (three and a half miles to a
league) ; according to others, more. The latter, I
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198 The Cruise of the Falcon.
think are right, for the track winds considerably, and
we were sixteen days accomplishing the distance,
riding at no mean pace for about twelve hours each
day.
The railway to Tucuman strikes straight across
the Salinas^ or salt-deserts, an almost impracticable
route for horses, for apart from the lack of pasture
and fresh water, there are times when, after heavy
rains in the Sierras, a strong wind blows the waters
towards the desert in a mass, so that they roll over it
like the Red Sea during Pharaoh's famous march,
and convert the salt plain into a broad inland sea,
with no land visible on any horizon. The railway is
carried along a raised bank which is always above
the level of the inundation.
On the other hand the road to Tucuman vid San-
tiago sweeps one hundred miles to the eastward of
the railway ; skirts the salt-desert, and winds among
the undulating hills of the province of Santiago, one
of the poorest and most thinly populated of the re-
public, a mere jungle for the most part, lying between
the Salinas on one side, and the Indian hunting-
grounds of El Chaco, beyond the great Rio Salado,
on the other — a province between two deserts. This
country, according to our friend the photographer,
would not fail to interest us, for its scenery is
picturesque, and it is inhabited by a primitive people*
poor yet hospitable, dignified and courteous, and pre-
serving all the manners and customs of their ancestors,
the old conquistadoresy who came here under Pizarro,
ages ago.
The Santiagenas, however, are much hated and
feared by the Argentines of the south, having ac-
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 199
quired an unenviable reputation as bandits, murderers,
and cattle-lifters. Let me anticipate somewhat by
stating that among this ill-famed people we met with
greater kindness and hospitality than in any other of
the five provinces which we traversed in this expe-
dition. The Santiagenas, it is true, return the com-
pliment, by accusing the Cordobans of being the
greatest assassins and thieves in South America.
The Cordobans, in their turn, heartily abuse both
their neighbours of Santa F^ and Santiago, and so
it is throughout the republic ; but all unite in giving
a very bad character indeed to the men of Santiago.
As far as my experience, and that of others who know
these countries better, goes, the reports as to the
dangers of travelling in this part of South America,
are grossly exaggerated. I do not suppose it would be
quite prudent to walk all over the republic alone and
unarmed, but it would be still less prudent to do so
in many countries in Europe I know of. Organized
bands of banditti, as they have in Mexico, are quite
unknown here, unless it may be in revolution times,
when every South American becomes more or less
of a brigand for the nonce. Considering how im-
potent the arm of justice is in these remote pro-
vinces, that there is practically no police, and that
these vast montes could shelter large bands of robbers
and enable them to defy the authorities with absolute
impunity, it is wonderful that there is so little crime.
It is indeed creditable to these poor half-breeds,
that, left to themselves as they are, they should be
so law-observing and orderly. Mule-trains laden with
silver dollars often make enormous journeys here
without an armed escort being deemed necessary to
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200 The Cruise of the Falcon.
accompany them. If the people that inhabited these
wild steppes were of Anglo-Saxon blood, it strikes
me that this would hardly be the case, and that
in the absence of other law, that of Judge Lynch
and the Vigilance Committee would soon become
necessary.
We were now to leave the land of paper, so we had
to supply ourselves at the Cordoba branch of the
London and River Plate Bank with chirolas^ small
silver Bolivian coins which are current in the northern
provinces, and others of anything but pure silver,
bearing on one side an impression of the blessed
cinchona-tree. The value of a very few sovereigns
in this spurious metal weighs somewhat, so we had to
divide these coins among the party, and no small
addition did they make to our baggage.
We were strongly recommended to take a native
peon with us, and a friend at the bank found us the
very man — " A regular ruffian," he said, " doubtlessly
an old horse-thief, and therefore the very one to see
that your horses are not stolen ; a native endowed
with that wonderful instinct every true gaucho pos*
sesses, which enables him, when yet afar off, to detect
the presence of water or pasture, to tell where a river can
be forded with the least difficulty, and the like — a very
useful man. You will find, perhaps,'' he continued,
" that he will like to hurry over some portions of the
road, as he is wanted in more than one place."
This, indeed, we found to be the case; on one
occasion we became aware that he was taking us by a
very circuitous route to the place we wished to reach.
The following conversation then ensued : —
• " Is there not a way shorter than this one, Manuel ? "
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 201
" How no, senor, there is a road a little shorter."
" Then why have you not taken it ? '*
" Because, senor, I know some one on that short cut.**
He said this simply, without further comment, as
if this was the most natural reason in the world.
I suppose he once had a misfortune there — a South
American euphemism for having murdered a man —
and was being looked out for by revengeful relatives
of the deceased.
This worthy called on us at the "Europa," and much
disappointed us by his appearance. We expected to
see a regular cutthroat-looking bandit in poncho, chi-
rippas, and massive silver spurs, with a long knife at
his back. But Manuel was a very different-looking
person. With the exception of the alpagatas on his
feet, his dress was in no respect that of the orthodox
South American bravo. He was<:lad in a light tweed
cutaway coat and trousers — the present of some
Englishman — very worn and ragged. His face, dark
and bearded though it was, had no ferocity in its
expression ; his smile was bland and amiable as
that of the heathen Chinee. Here we had a pleasant-
looking, weather-beaten, middle-aged man, rather down
at the heels, disreputable undoubtedly, but no fit
model for a melodramatic villain.
There was something in the face of this terrible
being that pleased us, so we soon struck a bargain
with him. He engaged to ride with us to Tucuman
as our peon, and supply his own horse.
" Have you got a horse, Manuel ? '* asked Jerdein.
" Como no, senor."
" Then we will start to-morrow. morning."
This Manuel did not seem to approve of. " My
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202 The Cruise of the Falcon.
horse is twenty leagues from here," he said. "By
the day after to-morrow I can bring it and be ready
to start."
Thus was it arranged. Jerdein uncharitably sug-
gested, when Manuel had turned his back, that he was
not in the possession of any definite, distinct horse,
but looked upon all horses as more or less his pro-
perty, and only required this space of twenty-four
hours, to enable him to pick out from the neighbour-
ing camps a steed to his liking. Poor Manuel! I
hardly think this was fair ; though suspiciously
enough, he did have no guia for his horse, when the
said beast turned up ; anyhow, if he had appropriated
another's, he had made a good selection, for that
horse proved to be the hardiest of our troop. Manuel
himself, too, turned out to be a most excellent fellow,
very useful, honest, and obliging; we parted with
sorrow on both sides, when the journey was com-
pleted.
As Arnaud's horse showed some tendency to sore
back he purchased another, a big black ex-racer,
and we converted his old Colorado into a baggage
animal. This change of duty the animal much
appreciated — Arnaud, to begin with, is no feather-
weight ; now he had but a light burden to bear, and
had it much his own way on the journey. He could
trot on ahead and feed on some clump of delicate grass
till we came up, then trot on ag^ain at his own sweet
will ; so long as he kept up with the rest of the party,
and showed no tendency to roll and disarrange his
burden, as he generally did after his girths were
tightened up.
We formed quite an imposing troop as we fell in
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 203
early on the morning of the 17th of March in front of
the hotel. First came the baggage animal with our
saddle-bags on his back, also a sack of necessaries
for camp life we had purchased in Cordoba — mat^s
and bombillas, an asadoVy a yard and a half of Bologna
sausage to fall back upon in the wilderness, a supply
of sugar, yerba mat^y pepper, salt, and sulphate of
quinine (for it was the season of chuchu in Tucuman),
goodly ribs of beef, and some of the little flat loaves
of the country, and, of course, tobacco. A kettle
dangled melodiously at his neck. After this animal,
who thus bore on his responsible back all that apper-
tained to the baggage, commissariat, and ambulance
departments, came we three gringos in top-boots and
ponchos, each armed with a big revolver and a big
bottle, the latter to be filled, when occasion offered,
with cana and water. Then followed the sage
Manuel armed with his perpetual cigarette, looking,
in his seedy cutaway, far less bandit-like than the
rest of the party.
He was mounted on a strange, lean, black horse,
with bloodshot eyes — a dissipated-looking beast, and
seemingly quite incapable of accomplishing so long a
journey. But Manuel knew what he was about, and
when we criticized his mount, he would smile and
say, ** Es muy guapo " — " You will see."
We did see, and wondered. This was a horse from
the Pampas, and, unlike our own, had never been
taught to eat hard food ; thus in the pastureless lands
we traversed the poor beast positively starved for
days. He stood and looked on with astonishment
when our horses greedily ate algarroba or maize, but
he himself disdained to satisfy his hunger with these.
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204 The Cruise of the Falcon,
It was but occasionally he came across edible grass,
yet, marvellous to say, this horse that seemed to exist
on air was fresher every night, and in better condition
when we reached Tucuman than our own better-fed
animals. He was muy guapo with a vengeance. A
gaucho's horse, like the gaucho himself, is as tough as
nails, and capable of enduring with stoical resignation
hunger, thirst, and fatigue.
We rode down to the Primero, the broad river
which runs along the north side of the city, crossed it
by a fine stone bridge, and soon found ourselves in
the open uncultivated country, on the old tropilla-
track, marked by the deep ruts of the lumbering
waggons.
When we were still near the town, Manuel rode up
to my side, and, pointing to a cluster of mud ranchos
some few hundred yards off to the right of our road,
said rather shyly^ —
" I have a sweetheart up there."
The gaucho, I must tell you, is like the Eastern
European, rather bashful when alluding to his love
relations.
" Well," I replied, " I suppose she would like you
to say good-bye to her as you pass by."
" Quien sabe ? " said Manuel, with a shrug of the
shoulders ; " but " — this hesitatingly — " she is very
poor, is Anita."
He then explained that this damsel was under his
sole protection, and that he should like to have an
advance of a few dollars of his wages, to enable her
to live during his absence. This Dulcinea was cer-
tainly not very extravagant in her menage^ for Manuel
said he only wanted about fourteen shillings, this
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 205
would quite suffice her while he was away (about a
month). We gave him his fourteen shillings, and off
he galloped to the rancho of his love. After, no
doubt, an affecting farewell, he returned smiling, and
told us that the senorita sent us her respects, and
wished the caballeros a safe journey. I am grieved
to say another lady turned up in Tucuman, who
likewise had claims on Manuel's purse. He was
evidently a regular rou^, was our attendant.
The road followed the banks of the Primero for a
space, and fine indeed was the view from here.
Beyond the river and its shingly bed towered the
Jesuit city with its many domes and spires gleaming
in the morning sun, the Sierras forming a noble back-
ground to the scene.
It will be very difficult to avoid monotony and
repetition in my narrative of this ride. Each day's
journey, it is true, showed us some new features to
admire in the scenery and vegetation ; but it cannot
be expected that the reader will appreciate the
meagre description of the ever-changing beauties of
this summer-land as we did the delightful reality.
Monotony we found none, all was fair, strange, and
new to us.
This morning we passed a tropilla, a picturesque
and old- world sight. Slowly it came towards us, a
long train of huge lumbering waggons drawn by
mules, solidly built of the hard red wood, with no
springs or iron in their construction, creaking and
groaning horribly. Miles off one could hear the weird
lamentation of the tortured timber. These waggons
were laden with hides ; strange and wild-looking men
in the gay -coloured ponchos of the north rode along-
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side them; and behind followed a large number of
spare mules. The chief of the caravan was better
dressed than the rest, wore boots with silver spurs,
and a valuable poncho of vicuna hair, while a brazen
trumpet swung by his side, with which he sounded
his orders from one end of the caravan to the other.
As we passed, the two parties greeted each other in
stately Spanish fashion, and Manuel asked a few
questions from the chief as to the state of the road,
the rivers and fords, as to how many days they were
out, whence they had come, whither they were bound,
for travellers on these great steppes hail each other
and exchange news very much in the same way as
two vessels meeting in mid-ocean. The discipline
of a tropilla indeed very much resembles that of a
ship. This South American caravan has its captain,
whose powers over his wild subordinates are as great
as that of the sea captain, nay, greater, for there is
no inquiry on reaching port, in this lawless land,
should he even have inflicted death while chastising
a mutinous peon. There is no South American
PlimsoU for the crews of the caravan.
These tropillas undertake enormous journeys, ex-
tending over many months, journeys whose length
may be measured by thousands of miles. The men
are generally armed so as to be able to resist any
hostile Indians they may encounter on their lonely
way. When attacked they form their waggons in a
ring and fight behind them, somewhat in the fashion
of the South African Boers. The foremost waggon
of the line of march is often provided with a small
cannon on a swivel. The railways, however, have
now to a considerable extent done away with this, as
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 207
with many other of the picturesque features of
Argentine life.
About midday we came across another small tropilla
halting by the side of the track among the mimosas.
The men in their picturesque garb lay about lazily
smoking; while a juicy asado was grilling temptingly
over their fire, and a huge demijohn of red wine from
the Andes lay among the flowers ready for the meal.
The physiognomy of the men and the whole scene
recalled vividly to my mind the wayside descriptions
one reads in " Don Quixote " and " Gil Bias." So
lonely is the land we now traversed, that we only
came across one more tropilla for the next 300 miles
of our journey ; other travellers none.
Just as our appetites told us that it was time for
our own midday meal, we came to a public-house.
This was a mud hut shaped like a sentry-box, about
five feet high and four feet broad. The side towards
the road was open, and there stood a little table
covered with a very dirty bit of native lace. On this
were laid out all the resources of the establishment —
the whole capital of the enterprising owner. This con-
sisted of one square-faced bottle of vile gin, a tumbler,
three wheaten cakes, some tails of strong black to-
bacco, and several water-melons. At first this esta-
blishment seemed to be deserted, but on looking over
the table we perceived the attendant barmaid ; for
there, squatting on the mud floor, was a very ugly
half-breed girl, apathetically sucking mat^ through a
black bombilla, evidently troubling herself very little
as to whether travellers patronized her restaurant
or not.
They are a very independent lot, these Argentines,
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2o8 The Cruise of the Falcon.
and won't go out of their way to ask you to employ
them. If you purchase anything at a store, they
serve you with an air as if they were conferring a
great favour on you ; the servility and importunity of
a London tradesman would astonish and disgust
them. The lady rose from the mud with a gesture
of annoyance at being disturbed, and for a real sold
us a large water-melon, delicious this sultry day. We
gathered some wood, lit a fire by the side of the track,
and over it cooked a succulent asado of the ribs of
beef we had brought with us in the commissariat sack.
We invited the bitter barmaid to join us at lunch.
She melted, and smilingly acquiesced ; so we all sat
down and fell to with our fingers, native fasliion.
The cana we had brought with us washed down the
roast ; then the mat^ was prepared and handed round
from one to the other, our horses the while rolling in
the grass and enjoying the rich herbage. The bar-
maid now waxed quite loquacious. In reply to our
queries, she sighed and said she was " solitaria^' her
husband was serving as a soldier on the Indian
frontier ; " forced into the army for merely stealing a
miserable horse," she indignantly explained.
Having enjoyed our meal and our siesta, we col-
lected our gear, saddled our horses, and bid adieu to
the ugly grass-widow, who insisted on standing us a
glass of her vile gin all round.
We went at a hand-gallop over the undulating
plain of bush and flowers, whose sole inhabitants
seemed to be parrots, vultures, and bizcachas, until we
reached Jesus Maria, a small village thirty-three
miles from Cordoba. This is an old decayed Jesuit
settlement. There is a fine old church in it ; and the
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 209
ruins of a convent, solid and grand, towering over a
clump of sordid ranchos and grass-grown streets.
Just outside the town are a few small plantations of
maize ; beyond, the wilderness of thorn. It was curious
to see this stately ecclesiastical edifice among such
surroundings, as foreign to it as were its builders, the
old Jesuit missionaries, to the savage natives of the
country.
' There is a very fair tienda at Jesus Maria, quite a
luxurious hotel for this country, where our horses
and selves were well fed and lodged for the night.
One is very lucky if he gets a bed at all when
travelling in these provinces. The Argentine of the
camps does not need such a thing ; he sleeps any-
where — out of doors by preference — and if he hav^e
a warm blanket, he considers that he has all that
the most fastidious could require. When the
traveller does get a bed, as we did this night, it
will be what is called a catre^ which consists of
a wooden frame with strips of hide strapped across
it. The catre is generally too short for a decently
tall man. His head will hang over one end, his legs
over the other, unless he curl himself up like the
domestic whiting. As in the East, the traveller is
supposed to bring his own bedding with him. As
the native saddle consists of a mass of ponchos and
blankets lashed on to a wooden frame on the horse's
back, what was saddle by day serves admirably as
bedding by night
Our this night^s bedroom was an apartment
striking for its unostentatious simplicity ; the walls
and floor were of mud ; there was no fireplace, no
window, no furniture, nothing indeed but four catres
VOL. I. p
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2 lo The Cruise of the Falcon,
arranged in a row. There was no door either to the
doorway, so we enjoyed ample ventilation. Privacy
is not valued much here. If one feels dirty in the
morning, no uncommon matter with the filthy
Britisher, one must sally forth to the horse-pond,
or to the well, to perform one's ablutions. But
this country is not intended for the over-fastidious
traveller.
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TJu Cruise of the Falcon. 2 1 1
CHAPTER XIII.
March litk. — At daybreak, Manuel gathered some
sticks, lit a fire on the floor of our bedroom, and
prepared our matutinal mat^. This is indeed a grand
drink to pull one together ; it beats coffee altogether.
It has, I believe, another property, that of acting as a
substitute for vegetables, and correcting the evil effect
of a meat diet, for the native of the Pampas is ex-
clusively carniverous, gorges himself with beef like a
wild beast, when he can get it, eating no vegetables,
nor even bread ; but he fills up all his leisure moments
between meals in sucking up from the bombilla this
marvellously sustaining decoction of the Paraguayan
yerba.
This day we rode across a charming country, more
undulating than ever, for we were skirting the outer
ridges of the Sierras. We crossed many dry beds of
rivers —
" Where oleanders flush'd the bed
Of silent torrents, gravel spread ;"
and traversed, to repeat an expression I have before
used, a land of birds and flowers, a bocage of many
shrubs, all in blossom of many colours, of many
scents, with fruits, amber and purple* Among others
P 2
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2 1 2 The Cruise of the Falcon.
we observed the various mimosas, the honey-tree
with its snow-white blossoms smelling of honey, cacti,
and prickly pears with large ripe fruit. Below our
feet was soft grass in places, everywhere beautiful
flowers, gorgeous as if cultivated with greatest care in
a British hot-house.
We were very hot and thirsty by midday, for the
parching north wind was blowing ; but all the river-
beds we passed were dry, so we had to ride on. At
last, about two p.m., we reached a small shallow pool
of foul water left by the last rains. We had to make
the best of this, so called a halt, unsaddled, lit our
fire, and got the asado under way under the shade of
a large algarroba blanca. The muddy water of the
pool we sucked up through the tube of our pocket
filter, it was not very nice, rotten and hot. as it was.
However, we enjoyed the asado, which we flavoured
with the little red peppers which grew plentifully at
our feet. Then came the usual siesta, very necessary
in this climate, under the drowsy shade of our tree,
among the polyanthi blossoms, while insects kept up
a perpetual hum around, and the parrots a screaming
aloft at our intrusion.
We reached this evening a little place called Las
Talas, which is important enough to possess a judge,
a worthy man who keeps a store and a billiard-room.
We put our horses in his corral for the night, and
gave them a feed of afalfa. He kindly let us have
a mud outhouse, inhabited by frogs, lizards, and fleas,
for our own accommodation. He would have let us
occupy the billiard-room, had it not been for a great
match that was coming off therein this night between
the two great billiard-players of the district.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 2 1 3
March igth, — This day's journey was across a simi-
lar country ; at long intervals we passed a house — no
rich estan9ia, such is not to be found in this poor
province, but a mere rancho of some small proprietor
or squatter. Round each, as a rule, was a small plot
of maize or afalfa. We slept this night in the village
of Avellaneda.
March 20th. — ^This was a lovely day, hot of course,
but tempered with a delightful breeze. We were now
in the Sierras, and the track wound down pleasant
wooded valleys, and over ridges whence we looked
over many leagues of undulating jungle and pasture.
We passed through a forest of charcoal, where a
monte * fire must have been raging fiercely for weeks,
the ground being still uncomfortably hot beneath our
horses' feet.
Our midday halt and asado was by the banks of a
stream of clear water running over a sandy bed ; here,
too, we found a deep, cool pool, wherein, to Manuel's
surprise, we bathed.
In the afternoon we came to a new country. We
left behind us the monte, with its various shrubs,
and traversed a land where hill and dale was
covered with pampa grass, while clusters of dark,
stunted palm-trees were scattered here and there.
By-and-by these became thicker, till at last we
penetrated a dense forest of palms ; from the hill-
tops we perceived that as far as our vision could--
reach^ the whole landscape was black with this
* I trust that my readers by this time understand that " monte "
does not signify "mountain," as one would not unnaturally
suppose, but what the Australians understand by the term
"bush."
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214 '^^ Cruise of the Falcon.
gloomy-looking species of that graceful family. Here
and there rapid streams crossed our path, cleaving
steep channels through the dark, loamy soil.
At sunset we reached a solitary house on a height,
which is known by the name of Santa Cruz. It is a
large and straggling building of unbaked brick, and
served as the post-house in the days before the Tucu-
man railway withdrew travellers from this route. It
. stands alone on a bare hill, and commands one of the
most solemn and melancholy views imaginable. All
round it one looks over a seemingly illimitable ex-
panse of black palm-heads, covering mountains and
vast plains, right away to the horizon.
The owner came out as he saw us approach — a
dark, handsome, pure-blooded white, with all the stern-
ness and dignified politeness of his Spanish stock. A
wild-looking lot of domestic animals, pigs, children,
and two or three cutthroat-looking fellows followed
to stare at the strangers in the garb of civilization —
relatively speaking, for Bond Street would have stared
for other reasons. We saluted him in the ceremonious
manner of the land, whereupon he invited us to dis-
mount. After a little conversation and mat6, he
placed a mud outhouse, far inferior to an English pig-
sty, at our disposal ; herein we arranged all our
impedimenta, but slept outside in our blankets. Our
horses were safely lodged in the corral.
The ladies of the house brought us the mat6, and
we were much struck by their remarkable beauty. At
times in the wildest parts of the republic the traveller
comes across the most perfect type of refined white
beauty among poor people like these were. One of
these was the loveliest woman of the Spanish type of
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 215
beauty I had ever seen, with splendid complexion,
teeth, and eyes, and long raven hair hanging in two
tails almost to her heels. There was evidently no
Indian blood in this family ; here was the old Spanish
stock of the conquistadores^ unsullied by mixture with
lower races.
A regular patriarchal house was this, where all the
old-fashioned customs of the grand colonial days
when Spain was great were still rigidly observed.
Our host was surrounded not only by his stalwart
sons and beautiful-eyed daughters, but by his pretty
grandchildren and his now aged and helpless father and
mother — a happy and upright family of the good old
style, over whose heads the peaceful years pass by
uneventful and uncounted, as the sons tend their
herds and grow their maize in the clearings of the
forest of waving palm, unmindful of the revolutions
and the ambitions that stir the hearts of the citizens
of the great cities by the sea.
When we had rolled ourselves up in our blankets
for the night, we heard our host, good Catholic that
he is, reading out the evening prayers to his assembled
family, while at intervals the hum of their subdued
voices, joining in, was heard above the shrill cicala
and the crackle of the palm-leaves.
In the morning Jerdein asked our host to what
amount we were indebted to him.
"Give me what you think right, senor," said he.
" Of course you were my guests last night for supper,
what may be the worth of the afalfa we gave your
horses in money I know not, you from the city know
better than I what things are worth in money."
We knew what this " leaving it to you^ sir," means
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2 1 6 The Cruise of the Falcon.
in England ; but here our host spoke in all simplicity,
for after we had given him what we thought to be
right, he held a consultation with his beautiful wife, and
then insisted on returning it all with the exception of
twelve reals, saying that he was sure the afalfa was
not worth more than that, and that sum, at any rate,
would pay him very well. Such was the primitive
country we had now reached, a land where hospitality
is still as much a duty as among the Arabs them-
selves.
Here, where inns are almost unknown, the traveller
as a matter of course rides up to any house, rich or
poor, doffs his hat and asks for hospitality for the
night. The host responds by bidding him dismount,
and informs him that all he has is at his disposition.
In the house of a wealthy man, as wealth goes in
this poor country, you would insult your host by
offering payment. In the house of a poorer man,
the traveller if he can afford it pays for the afalfa
for his horses, maybe for the beef he himself con-
sumes, but never for his lodging. A man without
a cent can travel from one end of this republic to
the other and never want, for no one dare refuse
food to the stranger if there be any in the house.
The Argentine has his vices ; and they are great
vices ; but he has his virtues also, and they are also
great.
March 2ist, — This day's ride was across a desolate
country — an undulating waste of dark palms, with
here and there, in strong contrast with their gloom,
extensive barren stretches of salt sands glaring in the
sunshine, for we were now travelling along the narrow
strip of land that lies between the Sierras and the
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 2 1 7
Salinas, and partakes of the charadter of both.
We passed no house during the day, and having
taken no beef with us, had to content ourselves with
Bologna sausage and water for our first meal.
At sunset we came across a solitary house, the
estan9ia of Rosario, a more substantial-looking place
than we had yet seen in this province. The owner
also had shown a tendency to please the eye when
planning out his dwelling; a very rare thing in a
country where a man builds his ugly mud house for
use alone, and considers it very foolish to waste his
sweet leisure in any superfluous ornamental work.
As I have before remarked, the native's estan9ia is
rarely surrounded by any attempt at a garden. He
is far too lazy as a rule even to cultivate vegetables,
far less flowers and ornamental shrubs. But here we
found a verj^ delightful residence indeed, with many
signs of refinement within and about it.
The house was built on an eminence overlooking
an extensive landscape of hill and dale, jungle, pasture,
and palm forest. Beautiful creepers wound about
the pillars of the wooden portico. A really pretty
garden with well laid-out beds spread in front, sur-
rounded with a hedge of cactus and prickly pear.
As we rode into the enclosure of this model farm of
South America, a regular menagerie of dogs, geese,
ducks, and hens saluted us.
We perceived, sitting under the flower-covered
portico now glowing in the setting sun, a comely
matron of the true Castilian caste of countenance.
Busy over the lace she was working, she yet had time
to superintend all the little country duties at which
her group of pretty daughters and the Indian servants
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2 1 8 The Cruise of the Falcon.
around her were employed. A large fire of wood
blazed in the centre of the courtyard, over which
hung a huge copper cauldron, from which came forth
a pleasant simmering and gurgling and a not un-
pleasant sweet smell. The girls stirred, fed and
tasted the contents at every instant ; great ex-
pectancy and excitement seemed to centre in that
preparation, and no wonder, for, like the Primroses,
mother and daughters prided themselves on being
the most industrious housewives and the most clever
fruit-preservers of the province. They were making
nothing less than ropa^ that is prickly-pear jam, and
what little country family is not excited when comes
the important preserving season ?
The Indian girls came in constantly from the bush
with huge baskets of the wild fruit on their heads,
while the daughters of the house deftly peeled them ;
no easy matter for a novice to do this without filling
the hands with millions of irritating, almost invisible,
darts. Figs, too, from the patriarchal fig-trees were
being laid out to dry on raised platforms of plaited
reeds.
As we rode in there was a flutter of alarm among
the girls, and they gathered round their mother like
chickens round a hen, and gazed at us wonderingly
with their big black eyes — for a body of armed
strangers is not always a welcome sight in this wild
and revolution-ridden country.
The lady of the house rose stately from her chair,
and returned our salute with a dignified bow. We
explained to her that we were only poor harmless,
benighted gringos^ who craved her hospitality for the
night. As a matter of course she offered her all at
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 219
our disposal ; so dismounting, we sent our horses to
the corral with Manuel, and sat down with the hand-
some girls and their comely mamma to drink matd>
Our story much interested them ; they had read of the
yacht in the Cordoban papers, also of our intended
ride; "Therefore," our hostess said smilingly, with
true Spanish grace, " you are not strangers to us, but
at home." She told us that they were citizens of
Cordoba, where her husband now was ; she and her
daughters were passing a few months in this their
country-farm for the benefit of their healths. For the
second time in twenty-four hours the Falcons all
irrevocably lost their hearts.
March 22nd, — On the morrow it was with reluc-
tance that we gathered our impedimenta together, in
order to leave this oasis of civilization and the
pleasant society of fair and gentle ladies. But we
were not to start quite so soon as we expected.
Manuel came up to us and informed us that our horses
had broken through the corral in the night, and had
decamped. This was startling news ; they might
have wandered leagues away by this time, and small
chance of recovering them in that case, or — the
terrible thought flashed across our minds — stolen !
" No," says Manuel confidently, " they are not
stolen. See," pointing to their fresh footprints in the
soft soil of the corral, " they have gone through that
break, and that too not three hours ago, and none of
the men's footprints about here are nearly as fresh as
that."
To have distinguished the prints of our horses' feet
iron shod as they were, from the others was easy
enough ; but it required the instinct of the gaucho to
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220 The Cruise of the Falcon.
detect that no man had been in the neighbourhood
at the time of their departure, for some of the human
footprints about seemed quite as fresh to us as the
marks of our animals.
Manuel was confident though, and he proved to be
right, for after tracking the horses some two miles
through the bush, we found them quietly grazing by
the side of a stream ; so we captured the deserters and
brought them back.
Some gauchos are very good indeed at track-
finding ; their exploits seem miraculous, and rival
those of Fennimore Cooper's wonderful redskins.
Several cases have come before my own notice. One
man, the peon of a friend, was pointed out to me
whose memory was so retentive that he never forgot
the footprint of man or horse to which his attention
had once been directed. On one occasion while
travelling he stopped suddenly, and pointing to a
print, said, " The little grey horse that was stolen
from my master, Don Luis, three years ago passed
here an hour ago." His statement proved to be
correct, and the horse was recovered.
Two Englishmen were sleeping in one room in a
lone hut, their peon was sleeping in another neigh-
bouring rancho. In the night one of the Englishmen,
an intimate friend of mine, heard a noise in the bush,
and suspecting the presence of some wild beast, hur-
riedly put on the first pair of boots he came across,
which happened to be his friend's, seized his gun and
went out ; but, finding nothing, soon returned.
In the morning the servant said to him, " What did
you think there was in the monte when you went out
last night, senor ? "
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 221
" How do you know I went out ? "
" I saw the marks of boots in the ground, not your
boots, but your friend's ; but it was your tread."
The following incident happened recently ; as it is
illustrative of the wonderful powers of observation of
these grave, silent, Indian-like men of the Pampas and
the monte, I will narrate it. A gold escort had been
attacked somewhere in the west, and the robbers
had escaped with their booty. Now it happened that
a gaucho who had heard of this adventure, and of the
high reward that was offered to any one who could
give useful information to the authorities, one day
perceived what would appear very innocent-looking
to one whose training had not led him to observe the
slightest abnormal circumstance in the passing objects
of his daily life. What he saw was merely a small
child leading a mule laden with raw hides down a
narrow mountain-path — quite a common and every-
day sight. But there was; something just a little
bit curious about the action of the animal. The
gaucho's keen eye was fixed on it ; he soon made it
out. The mule stepped as if it had a considerably
heavier weight than a parcel of hides on its back —
the stolen gold must be hidden there. Forthwith he
stopped the animal, cut the bandages of the hides,
and there sure enough, concealed among them, were
the purloined bags.
And more than these things will the gaucho do.
If he has lost his way by night, he plucks some grass
and tastes it, goes a mile or two on and tastes some
more ; and, unbelievable as it seems, can thus set
himself right — knows in which direction is the river,
or the lake, or wood, which he wishes to reach. By
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22 2 The Cruise of the Falcon,
the flight of birds, by a cloud of dust, he can tell the
number of an approaching tropilla. When the Indian
raid is imminent, and the barbarous hordes are still
far off, he can warn his patron of the estan9ia and
bid him make ready, for he has observed that the
ostriches, the gama, and other timid beasts of the
Pampas are all travelling from one direction.
Having saddled our runaway horses, we continued
our journey. The undulating country was now densely
overgrown with cacti, prickly pears, palms, and
thorny mimosas ; a land of poor and rare pasture,
but of plentiful water, for down every valley a little
arroyo of limpid water runs over the yellow sands.
At midday we came to a mud rancho. The woman
who seemed to be its sole inhabitant permitted us to
rest awhile under the huge carob-tree, which, as
usual hereabouts, spread its broad branches some
twenty yards in front of the threshold, and whose
shade serves in this primitive land as a sort of spare-
room for friends and travellers.
This lady provided us with some algarroba for our
horses, for ourselves charki and maize ears ; which
latter, roasted over the fire, are a very fair substitute
for bread. Here, away from the perennial pastures
of the Pampas, it is usual for each ranchero to culti-
vate his little plot of maize or afalfa ; necessity forces
him to become, against his instincts, somewhat of an
agriculturist as well as a shepherd. We lit our fire
under the carob, cooked our meat, and made merry
during the sultry noon of this torrid land.
For those of my readers who have never tasted
charki, a few words on this widely-consumed deli-
cacy will not be amiss, Charki is merely beef cut
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 223
into long, thin strips and dried in the sun ; when
fresh it is not bad, but it rarely is fresh ; and after
these lean shreds have been hanging outside a rancho
in the hot, dusty air, for I am afraid to say how long,
they form anything but a luxurious diet. The charki
then becomes so much third-rate leather; all the juices
have been completely dried out of it, and the grilling
of it on an asador over a wood fire does not tend to
soften it. The toughness that beef thus treated can
acquire is a thing to be experienced, not told. Con-
ceive first the ideal abstract, " stringy toughness ;" then,
as to flavour, imagine a sort of charnel-house, fly-blown
taste — for be it remembered that all these months
that the charki is hanging in the. sun, an average half-
inch-deep layer of flies is settled on it ; lastly, do not
forget that this is one of the dustiest regions in the
world, and that you will consume your orthodox peck
of dirt before you have got through half a dozen
meals of these delectable rags, and you will have
formed some idea of what charki is —a teeth-testing
dish with a vengeance.
Having torn, and worried, and masticated some
particularly choice, old, high-toned fragments, we lay
down under our carob-tree to enjoy our well-earned
siesta, and rest our aching jaws. But we were
soon awakened by an approaching sound, a confused
murmur coming from the north. Then we distin-
guished the lowing of a vast multitude of oxen, the
tread of thousands of hoofs, and the shouting of men.
At last the great herd appeared out of the bush — a
thousand head of cattle at least, lean, and halt, and
weary with their long journey over the herbless,
waterless country that lay to the north of us. About
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224 I'he Cruise of the Falcon.
twenty wild-looking horsemen were in charge, with
gay ponchos fluttering in the breeze ; some were
barefooted, others had their feet encased in the raw
skins of foals' legs. This is the orthodox gaucho
chaussure. It is prepared by simply cutting off the
hind leg of a foal, and withdrawing the bone and the
flesh. The man's foot and leg are then thrust into
this natural boot. To guard the legs of the riders
against the fearful thorns of the northern jungle, each
horse had two shields or breastplates of stout raw
hide, extending like two wings in front of the saddle
and falling to below the stirrup-irons. About eighty
remount horses followed the herd.
The cattle were rounded in for their midday halt
just above us ; then the chief — a great swell with
silver spurs, rich poncho, polished top-boots with very
high heels, and mounted on a splendid horse — rode
up to the rancho, and craved permission to take water
from the laguna for his beasts. An introduction was
soon effected between this gentleman and ourselves,
and he insisted on our joining him at breakfast.
Vain was it to declare that we had just completed our
meal — breakfast again with him we must There was
one little bull in the herd that was very lame, so our
new friend had him lassoed, pithed, cut up, and con-
verted into asados in an incredibly short space of
time. We sat down with him, ate the sweet beef with
our fingers, and drank the red wine he had brought
with him with much pleasure; luxurious, indeed,
were these to us after our charki and tepid laguna
water.
Bidding farewell to our hospitable friend, we rode
on till we reached the first township we had seen
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 225
since Jesus Maria. This was Chanares, a wretched
little place in the midst of an uninhabited, untilled
plain of palm and thorns. The raison-cTStre of a
town in such a spot is more than I could discover.
There were only from twenty to thirty houses, and
half of these seemed to be deserted and in ruins, for
the unbaked mud bricks of this country do not form
very substantial buildings ; they soon fall to pieces
when left to themselves. We dismounted in front of
the solitary store, entered it, and called for a tot of
cana all round before commencing business. The
bottle was put before us and one glass — water they
had none on the establishment.
By the way, this custom of placing the bottle before
the customer, and permitting him to help himself —
the cost of the drink being the same whether he take
a stiff or a mild dose — would, I imagine, hardly pay
a British publican. Fancy a London rough entering
a public-house, asking for a glass of gin, and in con-
sideration of one penny having a whole bottle put
before him. This is, however, the modus operandi
throughout America.
We inquired of the storekeeper if it was possible to
find accommodation for ourselves and our horses for
the night in this city. He thought that to find this
would be a matter of difficulty, as most of the houses
were one-roomed. By this time half the population
was around us, for the news of our arrival had .
spread like wild-fire, the visit of travellers, and what
is more, foreign travellers, being a very rare occurrence
indeed here. Some made suggestions as to where we
might possibly get what we required. One little
Indian girl, carrying a naked, very open-eyed baby,
VOL. L Q
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226 The Cruise of the Falcon.
said she knew of a house that belonged to a recently
deceased gentleman ; this mansion was now deserted,
as the defunct had l«ft no testament or kin behind
him, and it might suit us.
We visited this eligible villa, which was in the
outskirts of the city. If in the days of the late
lamented proprietor it was anything like it is now,
I do not wonder that he decided to leave it for a more
comfortable mansion in another world. It was a mud
rancho ; the roof and two of the walls had fallen in,
and the ruins had evidently been considered by the
neighbours as a most suitable deposit for all sorts of
household refuse and filth. Better to pitch our camp
outside the town than here, and this we accordingly
determined to do, after purchasing a stock of pro-
visions.
But at this juncture an important personage
attracted by the crowd, and imagining that this was a
revolution that must be nipped in the bud, came on
the scene. This was no less than the commandante,
who was only distinguished from his humbler fellow-
citizens by having a rusty pistol and an ancient cavalry
sword stuck into his broad belt. A pompous man as
became his dignity, but a very well-disposed little
person was this. Robust, well-fed, and oily, both in
countenance and manner, he much resembled my idea
of the renowned Sancho Panza — that worthy, when
governor of his long-promised island, must have been
something like this magistrate. He shook hands with
us, waved his hand in a patronizing manner round the
village, and said, " Welcome to our town ;" the our
sounding much as if it signified my^ for he evidently
never forgot that he was the presiding genius of the
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 227
place. " Our town is at the entire disposal of the
caballeros ; our herds, our horses, our domestic
hearths." There was nothing that was not ours ; we
were lords of all we surveyed, according to him. We
explained that we really could not^trespass so much
on his generosity as to accept the whole city, but were
very much obliged to him nevertheless ; we would be
content with food for ourselves and horses, and cover
for the night if possible.
Brought down from his florid Castilian talk to
matter of fact, the poor fellow looked perplexed.
It was evidently more difficult to satisfy this simple
want than to give us the entire town. He stopped
his discourse, looked anxious and doubtful, scratched
his head, made and lit a cigarette ; then he placed
his forefinger to the side of his nose, and with a
thoughtful frown contemplated the weather- cock on
the church steeple. So he stood for some moments,
while the little children, silent and with open mouths,
gazed with awe at their pondering ruler.
Suddenly he slapped his thigh, rubbed his fat hands
merrily, and said, " Come ! senors, come ! I know
now." He took us to a house where dwelt an old lady
and her two daughters. She had one large, bare, mud
room on the street, which she kindly placed at our
service. It was quite a sumptuous apartment, for it
even had a floor of wooden planks, and the mud
walls were whitewashed to the height of six feet.
Windows of course there were none ; but there was
a doorway big enough to answer all purposes.
This was a very garrulous old lady ; she tried to
monopolize us altogether, and would not permit her
comely daughters to come near us. A most Argus-
Q 2
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2 28 The Cruise of the Falcon,
eyed duenna, she cruelly took the young ladies alto-
gether out of the establishment as soon as we arrived,
and locked the poor things up somewhere at the other
extremity of the town.
We tied up our horses in the courtyard for the
night ; but as it was impossible to procure any algar-
roba or alfalfa for them, the poor beasts had to con-
tent themselves with a large pile of the branches of
some tree. However, they seemed to enjoy their
frugal repast, even Manuel's horse fell-to heartily ; at
lunch-time he had patiently fasted, gazing contemp-
tuously at the others as they munched their algarroba.
Our hostess drove the bats, cockroaches, snakes,
lizards, and other tenants of our apartment into the
street, and swept and garnished this room till it looked
so large and beautiful, that it inspired the usually
stolid Manuel with a most luminous idea. " What a
fine room this would be for a baile I " he said. The
very thing, we cried, so we determined to give a grand
ball to the whole town this night.
In this quaint country it is quite the thing for a
passing stranger to do this — and the people will not
be shy at accepting his invitation. A musician will
easily be found ; and two dollars' worth of vile gin is
all that is necessary in the way of refreshments. We
impressed a blind and villainous-looking gaucho, who
could play baile music on the guitar, and after dinner
proceeded to decorate our room. We stuck about
thirty tallow candles round the walls, borrowed some
wooden benches, and got a few bottles of square-face
from the store, and all was ready. We then issued
our invitations. Our hostess was in raptures over the
whole thing ; she even released her daughters, and
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 229
permitted them to accept our invitation. Of course
all the aristocracy was invited — the judge, the com-
mandante, the store-keeper, and any of the other sex
that might to them belong.
The dancing was soon in full swing, and a merry
ONE OF OUR GUESTS.
time we had of it. The chifias had donned their
feast-day frocks, had adorned themselves with cherry-
coloured ribbons, and looked pretty enough, as their
dark eyes flashed with delight and excitement, for
they were more than grateful for the grand entertain-
ment we had prepared for them.
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230 The Cruise of the Falcon.
Twang, twang-twang, twang all night flowed out
the old Spanish airs from the guitar, and as the
people danced the guitarist sang, in a nasal drone,
words to the tunes he played, as is the custom here —
words generally of his own composition ; love-songs ;
translating the subtle meanings of the figures of the
dance.
For many of these quaint and stately dances are
whole stories of a love. Such is the zampa, the hand-
kerchief dance, and the gato, in which the fingers are
snapped like castanets. Only two persons take part
in these dances — a man and a woman. The man is
wooing the woman. She is coy and turns away. He
follows, implores. All the gamut of feeling and
passion is traversed in this dumb-show, in which each
movement of the supple, lithe forms of these marvel-
lous dancers is full of expression. And all the while
the guitar-player sings in rough, but often powerful,
words the story of the dance, the passionate wooing of
the man, the coyness, the subtle by-play of the
woman, love-sick, yet feigning indifference ; again the
lover's despair, and ultimately his triumph, when at
last the girl can hide her heart no longer, returns his
passion and confesses her love. It was an awful and
rare sight to see Jerdein in his top-boots dancing the
gato with our venerable but jovial hostess as a
partner.
There was no sleep for us that night, for our inde*
fatigable guests did justice to our entertainment and
kept it up till dawn ; as is the nature of their race,
winding themselves up to a madness, a Terpsichorean
delirium. It was a demoniac whirl of supple limbs,
with at times a Bedlam shouting. The atmosphere
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 231
of the room was hot and stifling with the heavy clouds
of dust raised by the twinkling feet, and the fumes of
tobacco. Those who did not dance themselves sat
down, clapped their hands in time with the measure,
and shouted incoherently to encourage the frenzy of
those that did. It was a strange spectacle, and
showed us that in the dance, if in nothing else, the
Indo-Spaniard can be more than energetic.
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232 The Cruise of the Falcon.
CHAPTER XIV.
March 2y^d, — Having closed the ball, we saddled
our horses and resumed our journey. I am afraid that
some of our guests could easily have been taken for
Anglo-Saxons this morning, for unfairly enough any
one at all disguised in drink is at once put down as
one of that bibulous race by the South American.
Our gin, too, was strong, and to tell the truth vile,
but the beverages supplied at balls are not prover-
bially of the best quality even in England. A choice
deputation of revellers accompanied us a good way
outside the town, where a farewell bottle or so of gin
was drunk ; then we shook hands all round, or rather
two or three times all round, for the deputation was
singularly short of memory. The commandante came
up to me with his clanging sabre and his beaming
face at least six separate times. On each occasion he
came back to the attack, saying, " Ah, Don Edouardo,
I have not embraced you, nor bidden thee farewell
yet. Good-bye, dear friend ; good-bye."
At last we broke away from the kind and friendly
people, and proceeded to brace ourselves up with a
smart gallop after our night's dissipation. The
country was now becoming poorer and more thinly
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 233
hihabited as we progressed. We were approaching
an almost waterless and rainless region, utterly unfit
for cultivation of any kind. From dawn till the late
afternoon we travelled on this day without seeing any
sign of human life. We had now crossed the frontier
and were in the ill-famed, poverty-stricken province
of Santiago, almost a desert itself, surrounded by
veritable deserts.
At last we saw before us a little rancho with a
corral by it, but no pasture anywhere, no plot of
maize or alfalfa, or indeed any sign to show on what
the inhabitants of the hovel subsisted. We rode up
to it. An Indian woman with a child in her arms
came out.
** Have you got any charki to sell ? " we asked.
" No, senor."
" Any maize ? "
"No, senor."
" Have you any food at all in the rancho ? "
" No, senor."
We were parched with thirst, as were our poor
horses, so we asked the woman if she could supply
us with some water.
" I have got no water, senor," she replied.
There is in the neighbourhood of nearly every
rancho in this part of the country a laguna or little
artificially dammed-in pond, in the which stink the
hot and putrescent dregs of the last rains ; but the
laguna here had been dried up for weeks.
" Where is the nearest water, then t " we asked.
" Quie7t sabe ? " was the reply. " Who knows ?
They say that the laguna two leagues further on is
also dry."
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234 '^^ Cruise of the Falcon.
These people are certainly not unlike the animals
they breed in many of their habits, as hardy and endur-
ing as the beasts of the field. Often, as in this instance,
a native will find himself in the dry season at many
leagues' distance from the nearest water. This troubles
him but very little. Notwithstanding the dry, thirst-
giving nature of his diet, he can exist without drink-
ing for days comfortably enough. Twice a week or
so he will go down to water with his cattle to the
nearest laguna, and then slake his thirst. How
unlike the poor bibulous white man, who has such an
unfortunate tendency to get thirsty at all sorts of odd
moments !
So we had to ride on without food or drink all day
until sunset, when we reached a comfortable-looking
house. A plantation of prickly-pears and a plot of
alfalfa were onone side of it, a muddy pond on the
other. The master came out to greet us with the
usual stately politeness ; he was a man of some sub-
stance, for his broad hide belt was adorned with many
coins, a gold condor gleaming in the midst of them,
and he wore at his back a long knife in a heavy silver
sheath. He was able to supply us with as much
alfalfa and water as we required, and told us that we
were at liberty to sleep under the large paradise-tree
in front of the house. So we unsaddled our horses
and placed a welcome feed of alfalfa before them, and
then bethought us of our own supper, which was also
not unwelcome, considering that it was our first meal
this day.
We had mutton for a change this night, for we
purchased a plump live sheep from our host for twelve
reals (= about four shillings). We took him under
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 235
our tree and made all ready for a truly Homeric
repast We lit a glorious fire, while Manuel, now
quite in his element, cut the sheep's throat, deftly
skinned and disembowelled it, and then hung the
carcase on a branch.
As we had now more than sufficient meat for two
days, we did not care about keeping the " innards,"
so Manuel took these in his hand, walked up to the
senora of the house, bowed, doffed his hat in stately
fashion, and with a neat little speech presented them
to her as a small token of his gratitude for all her
kindness. A don of the old Spanish court could not
have presented a necklace of pearls to a great court
lady with more polished courtesy than Manuel his
strings of raw tripes to the buxom Dulcinea of the
Estan9ia Algarroba. We really appreciated our
splendid roast mutton this night, unaccompanied
though it was by bread or vegetables. Our host,
Don Innocentia Acosta, could not supply us with
these. It was, I suppose, beneath the dignity of his
stock of shepherd gentlemen to plant a potato.
We turned in under our blankets to leeward of the
fire, so that the smoke might keep the mosquitoes from
us, for these pests were numerous this night. As we
were making our preparations for the night our host
came out to us, and advised us to sleep with our
revolvers loaded at our sides, " For," said he, " this
is a wild part of the country. Who knows what
bad men may pass by to-night ? A month or
two back two young fellows who had brought some
cattle to the south for sale, and were returning with
the money, slept one night under that very tree where
you are ; the next morning we found them lying
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236 The Cruise of the Falcon.
there robbed, and with their throats cut from ear to
ear."
However, we slept snugly by our fire under the
paradise-tree, undisturbed save by the dogs, who,
smelling the blood of our sheep, prowled about our
camp constantly. Manuel had placed the sheep's
head under his own head for safety. At midnight .
three or four big, bold dogs crept up, made a sudden
rush at him, rolled his head aside, and decamped in a
moment with the delicate morsel — the sheep's, not
Manuel's, head. A fearful uproar ensued, and
sonorous Castilian oaths fell like a cataract from our
faithful peon's mouth. We all leapt up and seized
our revolvers, thinking that an Indian raid at the least
was on us. On Manuel's explaining we laughed
heartily at the adventure, to his disgust, for he would
not be consoled for the loss of his sheep's head.
Then we rolled ourselves in our blankets, lit our pipes,
and smoked ourselves to sleep once more.
March 24/A. — At daybreak our fire was still alight,
so we made some mat^, and cooked some appetizing
kybobs of the kidneys and other choice morsels of
our sheep. Then we saddled, slung the remains of
the carcass over Manuel's horse, and galloped off.
At an early hour in the afternoon we reached the
township of Ojo del Agua, consisting of one large
square, a church at one side of it, and about twenty
mean houses scattered round. Through the broad
spaces between these one perceived the wilderness,
whose luxuriant growth ran through and overflowed
all the square itself. Yet this is the pueblo that our
last night's host spoke of as muy linda — very pretty
— and possessing mucho gente.
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 237
We put up at the most respectable store, where
some awful-looking ruffians, gauchos of gauchos,
would insist on our drinking with them. These
v/ere weather-beaten, cutthroat- looking fellows, with
knives ostentatiously long: Monteneros^ who came
down to town occasionally to purchase mat^ or
other necessaries, when, as now, they knew that there
were no soldiers about. The montes about here
seem to have a very bad name. I suppose there
must be some fire where there is so much smoke.
Our host, rather a timid fellow, told us that these
men were banditti when chance offered, prowled
about the tropilla-track, attacked small parties of
travellers, and cut camp to unknown fastnesses
when they were pursued after some more daring
outrage than usual. We were warned to be careful,
when camping out by night especially.
The coinage in Santiago is curious in itself, and
there is but little of it. I drank a glass of cana at
the store, and presented the smallest coin current, the
silver chirolla of Bolivia, worth two reals. I received
in change a little triangular bit of silver, which, on
inspection, turned out to be the quarter of a chirolla
— for here, in default of smaller change, the people cut
up their coins — two cigars, and a vale^ or I O U, for
another quarter real, with the storekeeper's stamp
and signature on it. The storekeepers in the remoter
provinces often do this petty banking, and issue these
vales to a large extent in lieu of giving small change.
A very good business, too, it must be for them, for
not only do they thus derive the banker's ordinary
profits, but indirectly others also, for the holder of
the vale generally, I should imagine, feels himself
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238 The Cruise of the Falcon.
rather a mean cuss when he enters the store to get it
cashed, and ends by becoming ashamed of himself,
and taking it out in drinks, or other " kind/' instead
of in specie.
Our host informed us that the country ahead of us
was very rough, that the old tropilla-track was quite
impassable, as there was no food to be found on it
for man or horse for at least eighty miles — a land of
rocks and deserts uninhabited and waterless, traversed
only by gaucho bandits when escaping pursuit. He
therefore advised us to leave this track for a time and
make a detour to the eastward, so passing through
the pueblo of Salabina.
March 2 5 /A. — The vegetation, as I have before
remarked, had been gradually changing as we
advanced, becoming more and more of the tropics-
It reached its climax of luxuriance in the country
we traversed during the next three days, before
becoming stunted and ugly again on the borders of
the salt-desert we had subsequently to ride across.
The colouring of the jungle seemed now of an
almost unnatural brilliancy. Strange thorny shrubs,
flowers, and capsicums, with leaves of all shapes and
hues, thickly covered the ground, but nearly all were
of a dazzling metallic lustre, some gleaming like blue
steel, others like burnished yellow gold, or red copper,
or still darker bronze. The snakes and birds and
beetles, too, that fed on the acrid juices of these
seemed to have acquired from them the same mineral
sheen, so brightly flashed their gorgeous wings and
scales. Glorious convolvuli, with large blossoms of
various colours, wound luxuriantly over every bush.
One creeper, with white waxen flowers, sweet scent,
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 239
and bright emerald leaves, struck us for its remark-
able beauty. We procured some seed of this, and
sent it home. Perchance the child of Central South
America will flourish in an English hothouse. The
prickly-pear-trees, covered with delicious ripe fruit,
were everywhere. This was the only food-producing
plant of the monte. Not only we ourselves, but our
horses also, appreciated the cool pulp when we were *
thirsty. Giant cacti at intervals soared above the
lesser growth of the jungle.
After riding some few leagues this day we came to
some open spaces in the bush — clear spots of bare, dry
earth — where we perceived, growing in patches, a low,
insignificant-looking plant with soft, white-petaled
flowers and leaves of vivid green. "The chuchu^^
said Manuel. Yes ! this was the fatal plant against
which we had been so frequently warned. Further
on we saw acres of it. It grows only where no other
living plant is, on the bare desert spots of the country ;
in solitude, as if all other herbs avoid its poisonous
influence, forming little bright-green isles of verdure
on the yellow earth. I do not know whether it be
poisonous to man, but if a horse s>yallow but a few
leaves of the deadly plant the symptoms of violent
intoxication will first be declared, and the poor beast
will die within an hour, raving mad and in great agony.
The fact of its growing only in pastureless districts
makes it particularly dangerous. The horses that are
native to the sub-tropical plains where it grows know
it and avoid it instinctively, but strange horses, like
our own, from the Pampas will greedily devour it
when they come across it. We had, in consequence
to look carefully after our animals, and never let them
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240 The Cruise of the Falcon.
wander about to graze when any of this was near.
Chuchuy by the way, not only signifies this horse-
poisoning plant, but also the man-poisoning fever of
Tucuman and the northern provinces.
We were in luck this day, for at noon we reached
a rancho called AiguUa, and found that we were in
time for a grand feast An ox had been killed — a
great event — so the people of the place were making
merry. Like vultures, the gauchos and others had
smelt the blood from afar, and had gathered here to
participate in the luxury of a feed of fresh meat. Of
course we also were invited to fall to with our fingers
at the sweet asados, and to help them drain the bottle
of square-face as it went its rounds. Ultimately we
departed, content and happy, for had we not enjoyed
a very square meal.
In the evening we reached Quebrachos, a town
which, like all these pretentious Santiagan settle-
ments, was laid out in a huge square, not by four-
fifths filled up with the mud houses. At one end was
a church, a curious edifice, ambitious in design, of
unbaked mud, unfinished, but half-fallen in. The
architect had tried too much ; crumbling mud is far
too unstable a material wherewith to construct a pre-
tentious Gothic cathedral like this promised to be
had it held out. The inhabitants of this bleak mud
square were exceedingly hospitable. The comman-
dante lodged us for the night, and a courteous and
handsome old gentleman invited us to dinner. A
colonel in the army was he, but as a follower of
General Metri, the ex-president, out of the service
pro tern,, and in receipt of no pay; for as I have already
explained, in these enlightened and go-ahead repub-
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 241
lies there is a clean sweep of the broom with each
change of Government. When one party goes —out,
too, go all the subordinates — down to the ticket-
clerks of the Government railways, and even — I should
not be surprised to hear — to the licensed shoeblacks
of the capital.
A very genial old gentleman was the colonel, and
cheerful, notwithstanding that Providence had been
playing at Job with him with a vengeance of late.
Not only was his party out of office, but everything
had been going wrong with him, he said. A recent
flight of locusts had devoured all his maize ; a few
days back a jaguar had robbed him of a valuable
horse ; and now he had received very bad news indeed
from his estate on the Rio Salado, eighteen leagues to
the eastward ; the Indians had made a raid on his
cattle there, driven off some hundreds of head, and
lanced some of his peones.
We were informed that we were the first foreigners
that had visited this town save one, and this latter
was so pleased with it, that he had taken up his
residence here ; what he found to be so pleased at our
informant could not tell us. Anyhow, this eccentric
individual, on hearing that there were some European
travellers in the pueblo^ called upon us, and wel-
comed us with great warmth. He proved to be an
Italian, and, according to his own account, a ne'er-do-
weel who had tried many professions in his day.
He was a garrulous yet solemn little fellow; he
plucked us by the sleeve, and rushed off into a detailed
narrative of his former life in the true "ancient
mariner " style. He had been for eighteen years a
soldier in Italy ; then deserted : after this he was a
VOL. I. R
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242 The Cruise of the Falcon.
sailor in the Spanish navy for so long ; deserted
again : next he became the husband of a shrew ;
deserted once more : and so on through a variety of
professions, finishing off always with a desertion or
abrupt running away.
" And what are you now ? " I inquired, imagining
that he kept a little grog-shop, was the cobbler, barber,
or something of the like nature; but he gravely
replied, " I am the Government schoolmaster of the
national school of Quebrachos." He was the village
dominie of this little hole in the desert, and was now
seriously contemplating yet one more desertion from
this not over-lucrative post. He was a sportsman, too,
in his way, and drew us a very tempting picture of
sport among the ferae of the neighbouring montes, and
by the banks of the Rio Saladillo. Here, according
to him, abounded jaguars, pumas, deer, duck, teal,
hares, ostriches, geese, turkeys, and beasts whose
names are unfamiliar to the average English ear.
It rains but seldom in the central portions of the
Argentine Republic ; but when it does rain, it is to an
English shower what the Niagara is to the falls of the
Upper Serpentine. This night a fearful storm swept
over the land, a hurricane of wind, terrible thunder,
and such a deluge of water as quite accounted for the
deep fissures and rents that cut the monte we had
recently traversed in all directions.
The dogs of Quebrachos were as hospitable as the
inhabitants, and not wanting in kind attention to the
strangers. They came from the four corners of the
square, and mustered in front of the open doorway
of the room in which we slept, to guard us through
the perils of the night. They told themselves off in
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 243
two watches, about twenty to each watch, and so
relieved each other in the awful chorus which they
kept up diligently till morning. When we rose at
dawn, they came up to us with forty wagging tails,
and looked up to our faces with self-satisfied looks, as
if waiting for the thanks which were their due. We
did not feel very grateful to them for their noisy
guard, but assumed the virtue though we had it not,
and expressed to them our undying gratitude for
their generous conduct. The officers of the guard
dismissed the other dogs, and consented to join us at
breakfast over the remains of our sheep ; then, with
expressions of mutual good-will, we parted.
March 26th. — We did not set off very early this
morning, but waited to see whether the weather would
clear, for it still rained heavily. This, the autumnal,
is the rainy season here. It is only during these two
months of February and March that there is any
rainfall at all ; when this fails, as not unfrequently
happens, there is great distress in these provinces,
and the cattle must either be driven eastward to the
rivers by the Indian Chaco for pasture and water, or
southward for sale.
Our Italian acquaintance called on us at about ten
o'clock ; a casual pedagogue he, conducting his school
on free and easy principles. He said, —
" I must now show you round the town, besides I
want to have a chat with you about Europe ; come
to the school with me and have matd"
" I am afraid we will disturb you at your duties," I
remarked.
" My duties } nonsense ! I won't ring the bell for
school as long as you are in Quebrachos. We'll give
R 2
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244 ^^ Cruise of the Falcon.
the urchins a holiday. Besides, I am tired of working
for nothing. Can a man work unless he be fed ?
Bueno I the provincial government have not paid me
for nine months ; they give me paper instead of
salary ; paper will not buy bread."
He showed me one of these despised bits of
paper ; he receives one each month, a large elaborate
printed document gay with stamps and seals, an
acknowledgment that the provincial government of
Santiago del Estero owes him so many dollars (fuertes)
for a month's salary.
In the original agreement with him the Govern-
ment contracts to pay him his salary each month, in
gold, or its equivalent in bank-notes at the then rate
of exchange. But these wretched I O U's, which the
Government will never redeem, which no storekeeper
will take — utterly unnegotiable, in short — are all the
poor wretch is receiving. No wonder that he con-
templates another desertion from such a thankless
office. It suits the venal heads of departments very
well, in more than one way, that Government debts
should be paid in these I O U's, for the following
trickery is notoriously practised. The Government
employ^^ the poor ignorant holder of the paper, find-
ing that he cannot cash it — that it is next to useless to
him — will in many cases be only too willing to part
with it at any sacrifice, for a sum far below its
nominal value. Then steps in a third party, who buys
the paper from him for a mere song — a speculator
who has a brother, or a brother-in-law, or a cousin,
who is a compadre of some big man in office, or is
possessed of some such back-stairs key to that so mys-
terious an abstraction to the unlearned — the Govern-
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 245
ment. This influence being brought to bear, the Trea-
sury winks and cashes the paper at its full nominal
value, when the speculator, his relative, and the big
man in office share the spoil and hold their tongues.
Large fortunes have been acquired in this manner in
this enlightened republic.
Quebrachos is but a very small place, at the very
outside possessing twenty houses and huts, and yet
within these narrow limits we have three public-
houses, an imposing store where you can buy English
pickles and beer, half a church, a school, a comman-
dante, a judge, a schoolmaster, and an idiot beggar,
A Santiagan settlement is like a San Domingan regi-
ment, where all are officers and there are no privates ;
or the old Falcon^ where we had a self-dubbed admiral,
a captain, a first lieutenant, a second lieutenant, and
a crew composed of one small boy.
Our friend the schoolmaster did after all summon
his pupils before we left ; not to study, however, but
to take a lesson in practical engineering. The flood
of last night had invaded the schoolroom, and a bank
of sand had formed outside the door, preventing the
escape of the water, so there was the good-natured
pedagogue, bare-legged and in shirt-sleeves, spade in
hand, directing a lot of half-naked, ragged, half-breed
urchins to dig a canal through the sand into the
square, so as to drain the flooded academy.
We bid adieu to our kind hosts, and rode off in a lull
in the storm. It soon, however, broke on us again
with all its fury of thunder, wind, and rain. We were
of course drenched in a very short time. Manuel
utterly despised the rain, for, as he said, "See my
coat ; it is an English coat, and water cannot go
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246 The Cruise of the Falcon.
through it — ^at least not much." He had evidently
great faith in the tweed cutaway of the white man ;
and, though he did become as wet through as ourselves,
he insisted that the water found its way only through
the numerous rents of the old garment, the im-
penetrability of the material he never doubted for a
moment.
It rained so heavily that the sandy-floored tnonte
was soon covered over with two feet of foaming water.
It thus became impossible to distinguish the track,
but we followed the current of the waters, which we
knew was in our direction, for the brown roaring flood
was rushing to the North to swell the Rio Saladillo
into wild rr^J^^/^j with these millions and millions of
tons of water — water, difficult though it was to imagine,
that would never reach the salt sea, but dry up be-
neath the hot sun in the vast Laguna de los Porongos,
an inland sea in the desert that has no outlet to the
ocean.
From a balloon some hundred yards or so above,
the whole plain we were now traversing would, I
imagine, have presented the aspect of a shoreless
murky sea, with many bushes rising above its surface.
We progressed with difficulty. Our horses became
alarmed, and stumbled continually in the rapid water,
whose bottom they could not see. At times we
suddenly found ourselves in holes, where the whole of
our saddles were under water, and the animals were
carried off" their legs by the rapid tide. Indeed
things looked far from pleasant, and, more or less lost
as we were, there was a probability of night over-
taking us while we were floundering about in the
flood — a not agreeable prospect. Of a sudden the
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 247
sky cleared and was blue again. The sun shone
brightly, and all the birds burst into song. Lovely,
indeed, this wild monte now appeared. All the vege-
tation was fresh and dripping with diamond-like
drops. The tropic evergreens were greener than ever
after the welcome moisture. The huge cacti, twenty
to thirty feet in height, were the chief feature in the
landscape, pointing their gaunt arms, with their rect-
angular elbows, heavenward, like some huge polypi —
quaint and weird growths, very aged some of them,
rotten and brown skeletons, with all the outer green
pulp long gone, lying on the ground, or standing only
till the next strong wind blew them down.
Beautiful convolvuli wound around all of them,
while air plants depended like hanging gardens from
every branch with their delicate blossoms. Below
the yellow sands were hidden by the rushing waters,
but the patches of golden-blossoming camomile rose
like little islands here and there. At last, to our
delight, we came across a hospitable house on a slight
elevation overlooking the flooded land.
On riding up a gentleman came out with an
unmistakable Teutonic cast of features. We intro-
duced ourselves to him, and craved hospitality for the
night. He told us to off-saddle and enter within.
We found ourselves, to our surprise, in a well-furnished
room, with good engravings on the walls, and a book-
shelf full of standard German works. We seemed to
have been transported of a sudden to Europe and
civilization once again.
Our host then, before making any further remarks
to us, called to a native hand-maiden, and ordered her
to bring in some hot water and sugar; then he opened
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248 The Cruise of the Falton.
a mysterious cupboard^ full of curious instruments
and bottles. From this he drew a decanter. Then
turning to us he said in good English, deliberately
and with pauses between the sentences, as he poured
out with much delicacy, and in exact proportions, the
contents of the decanter and hot-water jug into four
tumblers, —
" I, too, am a gringo — Dr. Scharn — a medical man in
practice at Santiago ; and now, as a doctor, I am going
to prescribe for you after your wetting. Hot water
and sugar — that is enough. Now, then, the rum. I
think that's about the right dose. Come, now, drink
this down while it is hot."
Bowing to his superior knowledge as to what was
good for us, we swallowed the medicine heroically,
and that, too, without making wry faces over it.
We found the doctor to be a very well-informed
man, who spoke French, English, and Spanish as
well as his native tongue. We were lucky in finding
him on this his country estate, where he was now
passing a few weeks — a pleasant change after the
sultry, unhealthy city of Santiago.
We got all our clothes dry, and enjoyed a sleep in
beds for a change this night ; for this was a very
Capua.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 249
CHAPTER XV.
March 2yth, — It was not till noon this day that we
saddled and rode off, for we had but a short journey
before us to the banks of the Rio Saladillo, where we
had decided to pass the night. After traversing
some six leagues of sandy glades, we reached our
destination, just as the sun was setting. The mud
rancho, where dwelt the ferryman, was some hun-
dred yards or so from the river, which was invisible
from it on account of the lofty cane-brakes that
intervened.
As we approached this habitation we heard a
sound of voices and music, and, on riding through an
opening in the bush, we burst suddenly on a village
festival. In addition to the ferryman's, there were
two other ranches here, the white rag flying over the
the roof of one declaring it to be a pulperia, per-
haps the only grog-shop for a day's journey around.
Each of these miserable huts stood in its own little
enclosure, surrounded by a fence of prickly pear and
cactus, to protect the cattle within from the tigers
and pumas that are so numerous in these mantes.
Along a sandy glade in front of the grog-shop a
primitive racecourse had been laid out, and a great
race-meeting was now evidently being held ; for here
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250 The Cruise of the Falcon.
was a gathering of mounted men — some 200 at least
— and such a gathering !
All the gauchos for three days' journey around
must have been collected here — half-breeds most of
them, though not a few were half-naked pure-blood
Indians. A more cutthroat-looking lot of ruffians I
never beheld ; ragged, weather-beaten outlaws, each
with his long knife at his back, many with bollas and
lassos ready to bring down any stray cattle that
might come by to tickle their appetite on their lonely
wanderings. In front of the pulperia a bailc was
being energetically carried on.
We rode up to the ferryman's hut. He came out
to meet us— a handsome, clear-complexioned, snowy-
haired old Genovese.
" Lodging for the night como no^ senores caballeros ?
Dismount — dismount. Beppo, unsaddle these horses.
Come in, senores caballeros. Say, what do you desire
to drink.?"
He overwhelmed us with an attention and hospi-
tality that was amazing, seeing what ruffianly-looking
beings we strangers were, and that the old gentleman
seemed to be sober at this early stage of the festival,
so that this could scarcely be gin-induced geniality,
and fellow-feeling bred of qa^fia.
When we told him who we were, and that we were
traversing the country in order to write a book to
inform the English of its character — the best yarn
wherewith to satisfy curiosity, I have always found —
his pleasure knew no bounds ; he attempted to drown
us with gin. Remonstrances were vain.
** Bah," he would say, " you are English. Drink
won't hurt you, caramba ! "
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 251
He told us that he was most delighted that
we had arrived here so opportunely, as we could
stand by him with our six-shooters in the event of a
row. He considerably dreaded these race-gatherings,
for an awful orgie always follows them, and a gaucho
maddened with drink is a reckless savage, all the
blood-lust that is in the instinct of his race rising to
the surface.
" Besides," said our friend, " these are bad men
round here to-day — murderous thieves, who would
think it but a good joke to cut the throat of an old
gringo like me ; and they think I have money in the
rancho, the devils ! "
As we sat in the old man's porch, we could see the
fresh arrivals on the scene, for they still kept flocking
in, late though it was, two or three on one horse in
many cases, bare-legged ruffians with big toes thrust
in loops of hide for stirrups, half-drunk, waving long
knives and bottles of gin above their heads, and yell-
ing discordantly. They generally came up at full
gallop and reined up suddenly in front of the huts.
All looked askant at ourselves and our horses tied up
within the cactus fence, doubtlessly reckoning up the
chances of success in an attempt to run off with the
animals in the night.
Our ancient host, Bartolo, told us that he had been
settled here for twenty-four years. Before the con-
struction of the railway across the Salinas the mails
to Tucuman passed by here, and he had the monopoly
of carrying them across the river on inflated hides in
the old fashion that Xenophon or Herodotus, or both,
describe, and which is still in practice in Mesopo-
tamia and many Eastern lands. Those were good
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252 The Cruise of the Falcon.
days for Don Bartolo, but now trade is slack, and
few travellers need his services as ferryman. The
old man had been a sailor in his youth ; he had also
been a soldier in Italy, and at the siege of Monte-
video, in 1842, under Garibaldi. His life, he told us,
had often been in danger in this lone spot in the
wilderness, where, of course, law, police, and justice
are unknown luxuries. Men here are left to do what
they like, and they do it. These race-meetings at
the ferry, he said, end as a rule in considerable
kniving — regular duels with the murderous cuchillo
being a favourite amusement when the gin had done
its work.
" But here we are talking and wasting good time,
cabcUleros. Try some of this, my friends ; I think it
is a drink new to you. You can write about it in the
book ; it is a spirit extracted from the sweet pods
of the algarroba blancar
We tasted and much approved of this very palat-
able beverage.
" And now about dinner for you," continued Don
Bartolo, who did his best to make us thoroughly at
home. He called his servants and ordered a fat
sheep to be killed on the spot. Our mouths watered
on hearing this ; we sighed with excess of joy, and
our hearts warmed towards the benevolent old man.
A pretty, little, half-naked, innocent boy, some seven
years old, now ran up, and with a bewitching smile
asked, in dulcet tones, if he could kill the sheep.
Hiis fine hazel eyes glistened with anticipation of such
a treat. A knife was handed to him. With blood-
thirsty grin he wiped the keen blade ; then, with half-
a-dozen children younger than himself shrieking and
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 253
tumbling over each other at his heels, he ran proudly
up to the sheep and, very deftly, it must be confessed,
let out the creature's life. Loudly did the happy
infants cheer when they saw the red blood flow, for
such is the sweet Argentine child, such his gentle
play. In this Indo-Spanish race a thirst of blood
seems to be sucked in with the mother's milk. Cold-
blooded torture is the one amusement of babyhood.
The child of the Pampas despises dolls and toys, but
give him a dog or other dumb animal, he will amuse
himself for hours. First he will practise his father's
lasso on it, and half-choke the poor beast ; then he
will tie it up and get further excitement by running
pins into it, putting out its eyes, and such-like pretty
childish games— innocent little darling that he is!
And now that the sheep is cooking, let us go on the
race-course and see the fun. A curious meeting this
to one accustomed only to our British sport. I
wonder if one of our blatant bookmakers would find
himself at home here, or one of our jockeys, for the
matter of that. It would, I imagine, rather astonish
the winning rider, for instance, at home to feel a
knife plunged between his ribs by another dis-
appointed rider who was coming in a good second
behind him. This, however, occurred at the last
race-meeting here, and was not looked upon as very
extraordinary. The course was drawn down a sandy
glade, between the giant cacti. Right down the
middle of it was a row of posts supporting a hide-
rope. It is the custom here for but two horses to
race at a time, and this barrier is intended to separate
them from each other. There was only one match
to day that had been arranged beforehand, the others
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254 ^^^ Cruise of the Falcon.
were scratch-races got up on the course. This, the
race of the day, was for twenty dollars, for 420 yards,
between two great swells, the only present who wore
boots.
It had just been run when we came on the
scene. It seems that one had come in three lengths
ahead, but the loser disputed the result, and refused
to pay up. One of the barrier-posts had been knocked
down, as he alleged, by the winning horse. Now to
foul this rail invalidates a race. The winner denied
this, and accused the other of riding against the post
purposely, when he saw he had no chance of winning.
There seemed to be no judge — none, at any rate,
whose decisions any one paid the slightest attention to
— so the dispute waxed hot. All the wild horsemen
grouped round the two infuriated jockeys. Each
gaucho, of course, stuck up for the horse he had laid
his money on, and a good deal of perjury was knock-
ing about in the air. It happened that he who had
come in first was a stranger, so nearly all the money,
and hence the sympathies, of the spectators were with
the other. Therefore, finding himself overpowered,
and his protestations against the cheating vain, the
winner leapt on his horse, swore a great oath, and
galloped furiously away into the jungle, followed by
the jeers of the crowd.
This matter settled, preparations were made for
another race. The would-be competitors, some mere
boys, half-naked on bare-backed steeds, rode about in
the throng, shouting out challenges in regular book-
maker style ; some wanted to back their horses
against special animals, others against the field, or the
field bar one, somewhat thus, " Ho ! ho ! I'll race my
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 255
Colorado (chestnut) for two squares, for two dollars,
against any horse save Jose's big saino (bay). Ho !
ho! caballeros''
In the interval between the races we looked round
to see what substitute they had here for Aunt Sally,
digger minstrels, and other Derby-day amusements.
It was rather a serious meeting ; we saw in one place
three men sitting round a fire, and silently, sadly
playing at some game with a very greasy pack of
cards, as they sucked their mat^. About two dozen
gauchos stood round them, watching the game with
a solemn apathy. By the way the peculiar serious-
ness of the half-breed is not indicative of a contem-
plative mind, but of a torpid indolence ; his indeed
is the " riverie qui ne pense d rien,*^
Farther on we came across a ragged minstrel
playing on a cracked guitar. There was a jabbering
idiot on the course, too, whose ears had been cut off,
by Indians probably, and whose costume consisted
solely of a thin, torn poncho, and thick dirt. He
groaned and wept and wrung his hands energetically,
and evidently was reaping no small harvest.
** Another race ; make way I make way ! " A
long, lean, lantern-jawed fellow, looking like a Don
Quixote in bad circumstances, with only one leg, rode
to and fro on a hard-looking black horse ; he carried
a long staff on his legless side, which he stamped on
the ground as he rode along, like Peter the Hermit in
the old \voodcuts. He was very eager indeed to race
his horse. " I'll run any one four squares for a
patacon ! " he shouted continually with a stentorian
voice. Many present evidently considered that they
had a very fair chance of success if matched against
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256 The Cruise of the Falcon.
this one-legged sportsman. *' Bueno I I'll race you on
my bay," cried one, and four or five others also
accepted his challenge. But that one-legged structure
of skin and bone knew what he was about. He
affected not to hear these, but continued to yell out
his challenge like one possessed, so drawing on more
and more to answer it, for all now doubted his
earnestness, and looked upon him as some poor, half-
daft fellow. But at last, all of a sudden, he turned
sharply round and pounced on one jovial-looking
fellow mounted on a black horse, who had just then
jestingly accepted the challenge. " Good, my friend ;
then we will race," he said, to the discomfiture of the
joker. He had waited his time, until one whom he
thought he could easily beat had shouted acceptance
to his offer— cunning old turfite that he was. The
jovial one was rather taken aback, but could not
withdraw now, and race he must ; so the two dis-
mounted and prepared for the contest.
It seems strange to a gringo to see a jockey take
off his trousers in order to ride a race, but the jovial
one did this ; the one-legged one did not happen to
have on even one trouser, so could not. It is the
custom in this country to strip nearly naked on such
occasions. Our two friends divested themselves of
drawers, ponchos, and sombreros, fastened handker-
chiefs round their heads, and stood in their shirts.'
They then withdrew the heavy saddles from their
horses, and rode bare-backed to the starting-point.
Now commenced the betting among the crowd, and
bet they did with a vengeance ; there is no more
reckless a gambler than your gaucho ; when the fever
of play is on him he will gamble away his bridle, his
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 257
blanket, his horse, his knife, his all, and then walk
away, stolid, taking his rever§es like a philosopher —
a ruined man, yet not cast down, for he will soon steal
another horse, and may be luckier next time. We
walked to the starting-pointj to see the start, which is
managed here very differently from the way it is.
managed in England. The riders start themselves^
There are a dozen false starts at least to every race.
" Are you ready ? '* says one ; " Good ! *' then by
mutual consent off they go. If one be dissatisfied
with a start, he draws up short after a few yards, and
they begin again, not without a preliminary wrangle.
At last both drop their rebenqueSy and they are off in
earnest. The horses are at their full speed from the
very first stride — they are specially trained to this —
there is no pulling in, no making a fine race of it, but
slash, slash, go the hide rebenques from the beginning
to the end of the race, and at a tremendous rate
they do go over the small distances they generally
run here.
The knight of the rueful countenance won this race
easily. Many more races followed, some for as low
stakes as fourpence or fivepence ; but all very exciting
to the spectators, and productive of much gambling.
Cockfighting filled up the intervals.
But the red sun had now set behind the horizon,
and the sudden night of these latitudes was upon us,
so the meeting broke up, and the crowd returned to
the open space by the three ranchos to carouse and
make merry. After a good deal of half-scorched,
half-raw beef had been devoured by the fires that
were now scattered over the camp, a very witches'
ball, so fantastic it appeared, was started in the
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258 The Cruise of the Falcon.
pulperia, overflowing, so many were the dancers, to
the limits of the tig^-haunted monte. The band
consisted of a haggard and ferocious-looking gauche
guitarist, and a crazy, almost naked Indian boy, who
accompanied him on a drum, which he beat in a
monotonous tom-tom fashion.
The young ladies who were present at the ball
were plump, dark, not uncomely, but smacking some-
what of the immortal Dulcinea ; fat and garlic being
the chief reminiscences I have of them. They were
all barefooted, and danced wonderfully, lithesome as
snakes, in the rather licentious native dances. The
sole ornaments each girl wore was a flower behind
her ear, or a glow-worm picked up in the monte
gleaming among her raven tresses.
The guitarist turned out to be rather a celebrated
Majo^ or troubadour, one of the wandering minstrels
of Andalusian type, that have long died out in old
Spain, but are still not uncommon on the Pampas.
This bard chanted to us, in a nasal tone, some of his
own compositions, plaintive tristeSy stirring vidalitas^
with choruses to them, in which drummer and
bystanders loudly joined — songs in which the exploits
of gaucho heroes are told — all the while he twanged
his cracked guitar not unskilfully. Most of these
native airs are of a melancholy wildness, monotonous,
but of a strangely impressive monotony, like that of
many primitive races ; airs, too, that curiously affect
even a civilized ear, for they seemed to awaken and
stir in the soul far vague memories, the buried
instincts and sentiments of a remote barbarian
ancestry.
The dance waxed mad and furious, the dancers
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 259
were beside themselves with frenzy, but neither man
nor supple damsel seemed to weary, and all the
while these ragged beggars, these outlaw cattle-
thieves, were as smilingly courteous, as polite, as well-
behaved, as dignified as the proudest hidalgo of old
Castile.
At a late hour we retired to rest, sleeping in our
blankets, cL la belle itoiley with our horses, under the
clear dewy sky, with our revolvers under our saddles,
which served us as pillows ; but all night long the
camp fires burned, and the mad orgie continued, the
dance, the shouting, the gambling, the gin-drinking,
the guitar, and the monotonous tom-tom of that
dreadful drum. How weary that wretched little
Indian boy must have felt ?
March 28/A. — When we awoke the next morning at
seven, and prepared our mat6, the revellers were still
hard at it in front of the pulperia ; the tom-tom still
banged away, while crackers were let off at intervals,
as if to revive the flagging energies of the dancers up
to the proper pitch. Don Bartolo indignantly refused
to accept any payment for his good cheer, and would
not be persuaded. We had only to pay for the gin
we had consumed, for this came from the grog-shop,
and cost about fifteenpence a bottle — what it was
made of, I dare not say. There was not a headache
in a gallon of it, but sudden death in a glass for any
ordinarily-constituted white man.
We went down to the river, and found it to be a
wide, rapid stream, with steep earth banks on either
side, and sand-banks and quicksands rising here and
there in the midst of it— not by any means a nice
place to ford.
S 2
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26o The Ciniise of the Falcon.
The natives call this portion of the Rio Dulce
the Saladillo, but the maps designate by the latter
name a tributary stream which here joins the main
watercourse. The Rio Dulce is a considerable river ;
it rises in the lofty sierras of Tucuman. and, after
traversing the Salinas, flows by here towards the
Chaco, pouring its waters into that extensive inland
sea, the Laguna de los Porongos, which lies in a
depression in the Great Plain, draining it, but having
no outlet to the sea. By the bank we found the
chata^ a very rough sort of ferry-boat, awaiting us.
Several men and women, and a harpist, all very
dishevelled, half-drunk, and showing unmistakable
signs of having ** kept it up '* all night, were to cross
with us to their respective homes beyond the river.
The boat was far too small and rickety to carry our
horses across, but three dusky half-breeds volunteered
to swim them over for what would be equivalent to
three shillings.
It was a gloomy morning, with a cold south wind
blowing ; the river was quite a quarter of a mile wide,
swollen and rapid with the rain, so they earned their
money well. The fellows were more than half-seas
over, and had a powerful tot of raw gin all round after
they were stripped, to keep the cold out. We hardly
liked to trust our animals to them, and the wife of one
of them shared our fears ; she vainly endeavoured to
drag her inebriated lord back into the boat, but he
eluded her. The lady then made us hand over his
share of the pay to her, as she said that he was not to
be trusted with it, and would be murdering her or
some one or other if he imbibed any more square- face.
The men, drunk though they were, took our horses
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O
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 261
across very cleverly ; they were strong swimmers,
going hand over hand, dog-fashion, one ahead, with
the halters of two horses in his teeth, leading the way,
the other two swimming after, rounding in the other
animals, and urging them the way they should go with
shoutings and splashings. We crossed in the chata^
resaddled our shivering steeds, and pushed on at a
gallop across a very desolate and dreary country.
We were now traversing the eastern corner of the
Salinas, and could form a good idea of the character
of those salt-deserts. No grass or herb of any kind
grew on the sandy soil, but huge cacti, whose trunks
two men could scarcely span with their outstretched
arms — giants of their tribe— were frequent. I believe
that in no part of the world do these plants attain so
great a size, their rectangular arms branched out like
those of huge candelabra, and for the most part, so
ancient were they, the green covering was entirely
stripped off them, revealing the hard wood beneath
— decaying monsters that stood like weird skeletons,
gaunt and stark, and unhealthy yellow of hue, all over
the unfertile plain. The thorns of these cacti were
fully seven inches in length, their fine points easily
pierced the stoutest boot, and inflicted nasty wounds
that healed with difficulty. The only other plants
that we came across on this wilderness were a sort of
espinas, or thorny shrubs, whose leaves had a saline
flavour.
As a result of the recent rains, we came occa-
sionally upon extensive shallow lagunas ; but where
the sand was dry it glistened with dazzling bright-
ness with the salt deposit that covered it. The
reflection from this would soon have peeled the skin
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262 The Cruise of the Falcon.
off our faces, had not sun and exposure pretty well
hardened and darkened us by this time.
In the damper places we were besieged by millions
of mosquitoes, that literally covered ourselves and our
horses. There were three distinct species of them.
There were some that I could scarcely recognize as
our old enemies, nearly as big as wasps, and striped
like them, yellow and black ; ferocious beasts, that
pierced even through our clothes (and through
Jerdein's boots, according to him), with their diabolical
suckers. They were wonderfully tame, too, never
flying from the avenging hand like their wily cousins
in Europe ; but what availed it to immolate a dozen
or a thousand in this land of bichos ?
We reached our night's halting-place before dark
— a curious little settlement. First picture its sur-
roundings : a plain of Ary mud, in places covered
with salt, and everywhere cleft with deep, broad sun-
cracks, and cacti scattered here and there, albne in the
way of vegetation. In the centre of this not over-
cheerful prospect was one of the ordinary unfinished
squares of low houses of unbaked mud that I have
had so frequently to allude to ; the square, the
buildings, the plain, the inhabitants, were all of the
same depressing yellow colour. Such is the jaundiced
pueblo of Salabina, among whose prosperous fleas we
passed an uneventful night.
March 2()th. — This day we forced our way through
hostile legions of mosquitoes and thorns, to the village
of Juanilla. This is indeed a spinous region. The
thorns of this day^s bushes beat anything I have
ever experienced in the way of thorns ; I cut somfe
and carried them off as trophies, and am now writing
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 263
this with one converted into a pen-holder. It would
be the envy of any porcupine ; it is a foot long, and
its base is larger than a sixpenny bit.
At midday we came to a miserable rancho, whose
sole occupants were a woman and her child. She
gave us permission to light a fire under the mimosa-
tree in front of her door, and we soon grilled the
beef we had brought with us from Salabina. As
we sat by the fire, eating our succulent asado, a
bundle of brick-coloured rags sauntered slowly
down to us. This was the lady of the house, who
led by the hand her little naked, fly-blown child. A
lean spaniel bitch followed, also with its offspring,
a still leaner, most melancholy-looking puppy ; in-
deed a miserable procession. The woman was pretty,
or rather would have been pretty had she been fed,
washed, and combed out. Two long raven plaits of
hair hung down her back to her heels ; her eyes were
black and large. She came down towards us slowly
and stately, with all the Spanish hatiteur of mien
and carriage. Then she sat beside us, and, with a
long nasal drawl and slow delivery of speech, which
the Spaniards of South America have acquired from
the Indians, she asked — not begged — for a bit of
bread for her child. He was ailing, she said. Bread,
she thought, might be good for him ; she had none
in the rancho, charqui alone (dry leather! what a
diet for a sick baby !) . Miserably poor the woman
seemed to be, scarcely able to drag along her exis-
tence. Famine had dimmed her fine eyes, and
weakness had reduced her to a half-daft condition.
She did not pay attention to any remark we made
till it was repeated three or four times. She was
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264 The Cruise of the Falcon.
subdued by want to an utter apathy and torpor, a
not uncommon state of things in poor Santiago, not-
withstanding that its people are so hospitable and
ready to share their little all with the stranger.
" Will the senora do us the honour of joining us at
our meal ? "
" Como no, senor ? " she replied ; and I think our
fresh beef, biscuit, and cana did the poor soul good.
The spaniel, too, came up, and with plaintive patience
waited for an invitation to have a share in the good
things. She, too, had an ailing puppy who would be
benefited by bread, and she found means to tell us
as much in her own pathetic way.
We made the woman a little present of yerba and
sugar before we left, and she insisted on giving us a
bottle of prickly-pear jam in return, for with all her
poverty, she was far too proud to accept anything in
the way of alms.
After crossing eight leagues more of salt plain we
reached Juanilla, where were three or four houses
and a store. Outside this store were sitting several
very stately gentlemen, chattering and smoking. They
rose, and politely begged us to dismount. We piled
up our impediments under the eaves of the house,
and entered into conversation with the gossiping
compadres, who were evidently the big men and elders
of the place.
The people about here are for the most part
of pure Spanish blood, many tracing back their
descent to the old conquistadores, followers of Fer-
nandez Pizarro ; but, curiously enough, the language
spoken hereabouts by all is not Spanish, but the
Indian dialect, Quichua^ the ancient tongue of the
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 265
Incas of Peru. These elders all conversed in this
language, but of course understood Spanish as well,
as many of the lower orders do not. The Quichua
tongue is only spoken in the northern provinces of
the Argentine Republic, on the frontier of Bolivia.
Our new friends of Juanilla were all fine types of the
antique colonist, reminding one of the portraits by
the old Spanish masters. Velasquez painted heads
like these, long, fierce-eyed, stern, and bearded. In
the becoming native dress they looked like men of a
long-past age, as they verily are in all their manners ;
tall, gaunt, angular men of the true Don Quixote
breed.
We chatted and drank gin with these antique San-
tiagenas, while a small boy was sent in search of
maize for our horses. In the midst of the slow
dignified conversation, a sudden commotion was heard
in the pueblo, and even these stolid sages showed
unmistakable signs of excitement. What extra-
ordinary event was it that could so stir these pro-
foundly still natures } Nothing less than the race-
horses — two of them— that were being brought out
for their afternoon gallop. The whole population
of Juanilla — some thirty, including women and babes
— turned out to inspect the beautiful animals. This
was the one event, the sole excitement to break the
sleepy dead-and-alive day of this dull South Ameri-
can village. These two horses are the pride, the hope
of Juanilla, the objects of the greatest solicitude.
They are tended with minute care, fed at intervals,
day and night, in a scientific way, till they become as
hard as nails, or as charquu Before their alfalfa is
laid before them, every unwholesome bit or particle
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266 The Cruise of the Falcon.
of foreign matter is carefully picked out. In fact,
they have a fine old time of it, and are treated as
gods, even as some sacred Bull of Memphis, kinging
it in his manger.
We saw the horses gallop, and agreed with the
proud owner that the tordillo (grey) was a likely
animal to put one's money on. When the maize
arrived — very dear it is, by the way, in this province
ot the desert — we found it was ungrained, so we had
to sit down and disintegrate the tough ears ourselves.
This is no easy work, and would inflict sore havoc on a
delicate-skinned hand, which ours are not, anyhow.
After a square meal of puchero we turned in, in the
primitive way of the country, under our blankets in
the middle of the main (and only) street, for there
were no policemen here to disturb our slumbers and
bid us " move on."
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 267
CHAPTER XVI.
March y:>th, — On leaving Juanilla, our route lay
across a rather less desert country. We were off early,
and before the mosquitoes had slept off the last night^s
orgie. But they got up soon after us, when the suti
warmed their wings, half-paralyzed by the cold of the
morning dew. We cooked and devoured our mid-
day asado in the middle of the village of Atamisqui,
in front of the butcher's house. A typical dwelling
of the country was this : a one-roomed rancho, with
no window. Inside was nothing save fleas and dirt,
but outside were all the careful housewife's apparati.
First, in front of the door, was a mud structure like a
bee-hive — this was the oven wherein the bread is
baked ; near this was the hollowed stump of a tree,
forming a big mortar, in which a woman was crushing
maize, or algarroba pods, with a wooden pestle. The
meat (charqui) hung in festoons from the branches of
a large mimosa.
This is certainly a most out-of-door people. In
this province the cooking of a household is done out-
side, the family eat outside, at night lock up the house
and sleep outside ; in short, exist altogether outside —
wisely, seeing what worse than pigstyes their ranchos
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268 The Cruise of the Falcon.
are. But why do they take the trouble of construct-
ing houses at all, since they apparently make no
manner of use of them ? I cannot imagine, unless,
upon mature consideration, it be for the laudable
object of becoming householders, and so having a
vote ; but I forget we are in enlightened, universal-
franchised South America, not in feudal England.
Here we found that the inhabitants understood but
little Spanish, and spoke Quichua exclusively.
In the evening we reached Loretto, the largest town
between Cordoba and Santiago, but that is not saying
much. The photographer of Cordoba had spoken to
us of Loretto, and marked it down on the road-plan
he prepared for us as "a town of women.'* Such
towns, where men are few, the population being
almost exclusively made up of the fair sex, are not
rare in some parts of the Argentine Republic. In
all parts of this province the traveller is especially
struck by the disproportion of the sexes. This I
have heard attributed to the revolutions, and to the
sweeping conscriptions the tyrant governor of a pro-
vince often decrees, in order to strengthen his personal
power. This Argentine confederation has been, and
still to a lesser extent will be, until the Unitarios get
the upper hand for good, a collection of almost inde-
pendent states or provinces. Each has its separate
provincial government, its provincial army, its local
satrap, who, as often as not, sets at nought the im-
potent edicts of the central National Government.
In this province of Santiago, some few years ago,
reigned almost as kings, or, more exactly, as powerful
feudal barons, the Taboadas, a noble family, haughty
and ambitious. The flower of the land was taken by
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 269
these to serve in the provincial army, which they
maintained on a far higher footing than was necessary
to protect the Indian frontier. Thousands of gaucho
cavalry were kept ever in readiness to advance against
the neighbouring provinces, when disputes arose
between the Taboadas and rival satraps.
It was this state of things, I am told, that accounts
for the now paucity of men in Loretto and other
towns. The Nero-like cruelties and lusts, the un-
bridled tyranny of these Republican presidents, dic-
tators, and governors, would hardly be credited by
folks at home. These men, ignorant as a rule, mere
gauchos some of them, raise themselves to the
little brief authority by the means of assassination,
treachery, and crime ; and with these same they pro-
tect themselves through their rapacious career, until
the assassin's knife makes way for some greater tyrant.
The Monteneros, or organized bands of gaucho out-
laws, become the ready tool of any would-be despot
who offers hope of plunder, and the wild hordes of
the Pampas are brought down to overrun the civili-
zation of the city. It is this system that has ruined
what would otherwise be flourishing towns and centres
of commerce and industry. The stranger is struck
with astonishment, and is at a loss for an explanation
when he comes across so many towns, considerable
and ancient many of them, in this Republic, that are
now falling in ruins, and whose grass-grown streets
are almost deserted by man.
Juan Facundo Quiroga, the outlaw gaucho murderer
from the Western Llanos, Rosas, his assassin, and the
rest of them, have all had a turn at impoverishing
their native land, and making her a bye-word among
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270 The Cruise of tlie Falcon.
the nations. Like Sylla and Marius, his types in
ancient Rome, each new tyrant proscribed his political
adversaries, and so were the noblest and best of the
land slain or sent as exiles into Chili. But civili-
zation is now having its revenge ; the barbarism of
the Pampas is fighting hard, but it is no longer the
power, the terror that it was.
About half a mile or so outside the "town of
women " was a rancho. Here, indeed, was a man, but
he was not a whole one, for he was lying very pale
and weak on a catre in front of his hut, having been
severely wounded by a jaguar that he had hunted
and driven at bay. He was feebly sucking, mate
when we approached. Two small, naked, brown chil-
dren sat by him on the ground, each with two broad
rings of flies settled round his eyes, like the black
rims of spectacles — for, like the Egyptian infant, the
Argentine country child never bethinks him of brush-
ing away these flies, but sits down, seemingly perfectly-
comfortable, with fifty or sixty thus roosting round
his optics. There the two pot-bellied little urchins
squatted, stolidly chewing algarroba-pods, which seems
to be the sole diet of the poorer children of this pro-
vince — not a very nourishing one either. To procure
enough sustenance in this way necessitates about
thirteen hours of persistent chewing a day ; thus the
stomachs of the young here, like those of all savages
who live on vegetables and roots alone, are bulky and
oxlike in proportion.
This man could sell us alfalfa and charqui, and
behind his house was a small pond of muddy water,
so we determined to camp here for the night, instead
of thrusting ourselves on the hospitality of the Loret-
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 271
tanas ; besides, it was far from certain if forage would
be procurable within the walls of the town ; and yet,
again, would it not have been an over-adventuresome
and perilous thing to have passed down those mud
streets, and found ourselves alone and unprotected
males among so many women ? Caramba ! It was
too perilous, and legends of fierce Amazons rose to
our memory, and the fearful laws of that city of fair
girls where Tennyson's Princess held her sway, so we
off-saddled and prepared our camp by the side of the
mosquito-haunted laguna — smoke could keep off their
sting — but women ! not that we Falcons are misogy-
nists. Heaven forbid !
But from the watch-tower of the city did the sen-
tinel maiden perceive the four horsemen from a far
country, and she reported us to the governoress, or
governess. Then was a consultation held, and the
elders said, " Let us send some forth that they may
slay these gringo intruders— gringos and males to
boot ! it is horrible ! '* But the younger women were
loth that this should be done, for they had perceived
that the horsemen were not uncomely, and, being
women, they felt much curiosity to know what these
men in so strange apparel and stained with long
travel might be.
Now, happily, the younger women were the majority
in the council, so there were sent forth to invite us as
friends within the walls two delegates — one an elder
and stately matron, one a graceful, dark-eyed girl.
Afar off we saw them approaching, so we tried to look
our best, shook the dust off our ponchos, gave our
sombreros a gay, cavalier-like askewness, twirled our
moustaches, and put on our most superior smiles.
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272 The Cruise of the Falcon .
They came up, and then we felt small indeed, for they
paid no manner of attention to us ; they had walked
hither, not for us, but to visit the sick man, who was
their relative, and to bear him grateful delicacies. All
the grand stuff I have written above was the mere off-
spring of our wanton imaginations, the conjecture of
our vanity, when we perceived the two black-draped
figures coming out of the town towards us.
After these ministers of mercy had seen to the wants
of the wounded man, they condescended to notice us,
and inquired of him what we were. On hearing our
tale, the elder woman came up, and, with a very
pleasant manner, invited us to her house in the
town.
" Senores Caballeros," she said, " I have an apart-
ment in my house, which is not in use, and which I
shall be happy to place at your disposition for the
night, if you will accept of it. There is a well hard
by, and I can supply you with a sufficiency of beef,
maize, and alfalfa."
We accepted her gracious offer, resaddled, put our
baggage on the pack-aninial, and followed her into
the town. The poor horses evidently did not relish
this, for we had ridden them fifty-five miles this day,
and they naturally thought the time for repose had
arrived ; but they had not far to go ere they were
again unsaddled and at ease.
While our asado was cooking in the courtyard, we
took a stroll through the town. The small number
of men in the place was certainly extraordinary. At
last, in one of the stores, we did find quite a consider-
able group of our own sex drinking— cutthroat-
looking gauchos, all with long knives, some with
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 2 7^
revolvers, but who politely insisted on our drinking
with them.
Here, too, was an individual who deserves particular
mention — a dark man, beardless, with bright, beady
eyes, and much of the Indian in his blood. He was
well-dressed, but in a barbaric fashion, that differed
considerably from that of the gauchos round in its
details : a scarlet kerchief was round his head below
his sombrero ; his poncho was of gaudy colours and
strange pattern ; his silver spurs were massive, and
gold earrings were in his ears. When he spoke it was
with a pompous nasal drawl, very deliberate, and
offensive to ears unaccustomed to it.
This man was a Bolivian Colla, a travelling herba-
list or quack doctor. These Indian and half-breed
Collas have a great reputation all over South
America ; they travel with their packs of drugs to the
southernmost camps of Buenos Ayres, and northwards
to the shores of Panama. They are looked upon with
much reverence by the gauchos of the Pampas as
great medicine-men, conjurers, and miracle-workers.
That there is much humbug in these Collas is true,
but there is much besides ; there is a sort of primitive
college in Bolivia where the would-be Collas receive
their diplomas. This college has no buildings, no
books, the primeval forest serves for both. The elder
Collas take the young aspirants out into the midst of
that glorious Bolivian vegetation, and expound to
them, day after day, the properties and secret virtues,
the poisonous effects, of all the herbs and animal dis-
tillations, as handed down by tradition from genera-
tion to generation, from Colla to Colla, long ere the
Spaniard stepped on the American shore. All the
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274 '^^ Cruise of the Falcon.
instruction is oral ; none of this lore has ever been
committed to writing. I doubt if one out of twenty
of the learned dons and doctors of the college of CoUas
can read or write. When the young man has imbibed
all this antique wisdom, a wand, painted in spiral
stripes, is given to him, he is solemnly called by the
name of Colla, and he is sent forth to wander over the
wide continent on his healing errand. Not to be
despised is the medical science of these unlettered
men ; that traditionary system, that empirical wisdom
of many centuries, contains many wonderful and
useful secrets unknown to our European schools. I
have heard of several extraordinary cures performed
by them on sceptical Englishmen, not at all likely to
be taken in by a common quack. For all fevers,
snake-bites, and diseases peculiar to this country, give
me the Bolivian Collas with their striped wand. They
know the leaf that is the magical dispeller of fever ;
they can extract charms from innocent-looking
insects that will allay the pains of rheumatism ; they
can teach you how to mix your mother-in-law's mat6
with an essence that will bring peace to your house-
hold ; they will sell you chips of wood, the which, if
you throw them in a stream or pond, will poison or
intoxicate all the fish, so that they float on the surface
and can be easily caught ; but as a surgeon the Colla
is not to be relied upon ; of anatomy, physiology, or
any other ology, of course he knows nothing whatever,
though he will talk all sorts of incomprehensible jargon
about them for your benefit.
March ^ist, — From Loretto a two-days' journey
brought us to Santiago del Estero, the capital of the
province. Our route lay across a much pleasanter
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 275
country than that we had left. The vegetation, more
tropical in nature, was fresh and green after the recent
rains ; below the bushes was spread a soft carpet, not
of grass, but of lovely flowers — verbenas, polyanthi,
tulips, camomile, and .others. Towering above the
lower bushes were stately trees — the Quebrachos
colorados — betokening that we were near the limit of
the monte, and at the commencement of the tropical
forest. The bushes were not too near each other
here, as in the denser montes further south, but
scattered, so that through the interspaces the eye was
relieved by extensive views over the sea-like spreads
of flowers. The convolvuli and creepers, too, that
overflowed the bush, the trees, the bushes, were all
in manifold flower, and in fruit as well ; all bore fruit.
There was the prickly pear, with its heavy load of
juicy orbs, and the ancoche, with its pearl-like drops,
sweet to the taste and wholesome. There was a huge
cactus, too, hereabouts, that bore plentiful fruit, some-
what like that of the prickly pear in outward appear-
ance, but larger ; some of these were bursting open
with ripeness, and disclosed the delicious pulp within,
cool as spring-water, and of a blood-red colour. This
is called the oukli here, a lovely fruit, and one of the
most useful in South America.
In the rainless, arid districts of the Andes, in
Santiago, and other provinces remote from the sea-
coast, where the rainfall is irregular and rare, and
where, after long months of cloudless, burning skies,
the pastures wither up, the lagunas dry, and the cattle
perish of drought ; in rocky regions, too, baked by the
vertical sun, where no other plant can find sustenance,
the blessed oukli flourishes. Those stout, prickly
T 2
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276 The Cruise of the Falcon.
stems and manifold round fruit, covered with thick,
green rind, blushing slightly with the red pulp within,
are fleshy and juicy to excess, full of an insipid sap
sucked in from the heavy dews of the night. These
plants are admirably constructed for the absorption
of the floating vapours.
In the seca — the drought — the ranchero will go
out and cut down with his machete a quantity of these
soft, pulpy cacti, which the cattle will eagerly devour,
both stem and fruit, therein finding an abundance of
both food and drink. Were it not for the oukli, many
portions of this province now inhabited would have to
be left utterly desolate. We found the cool fruit,
which can be eaten with impunity, very grateful.
In the pleasant fields we crossed this day, seemed
to have gathered all the winged people of the pro-
vince ; never did I behold so many birds together :
thousands of cooing doves and chattering parrots, and
strange rainbow-coloured little creatures that never
rested ; coranchos, vultures, and owls were there too
in legions, but presenang a more dignified appearance,
and seeming to despise the frivolity of their cousins.
A land of fruit and birds and flowers, but of bichos
and espinas too !
We heard from people that we met that the Rio
Dulce, which we had to cross once more, was swollen
by the rains, and not practicable at the passage of
Gauchana, so we had to follow a longer route, and
ride by the banks of the river to a point about a league
distant from the city of Santiago, where there was
another chata.
We passed by a little town called Mamodo, where
was the usual square, this one more unfinished than
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 277
any we had yet seen. There were but six houses
scattered round it, and the jungle grew so dense and
tall in the centre of it that it was impossible from
one side to see the houses on the other. I do not
know how these pueblos are founded, but the august
founders, whoever they may be, evidently, as a rule,
expected that enormous cities were to rise on the
spots of their choice, on so extensive a scale did they
draw out the skeletons of these future Babylons.
This they told us was an ancient pueblo, yet jaguars
and pumas roamed unmolested in its square. At a
rancho here we tasted a new and strange drink, which
we all pretended to like — algarroba beer. To make
this, the pods are well mashed in a hollow tree-stump,
water is poured on them, fermentation takes place,
and in twenty-four hours you have your foaming
ale. I cannot say much for algarroba beer, but
algarroba spirit is by no means to be despised, and
the cakes made from the pounded beans are very
nice indeed.
After riding about forty miles we entered a forest
nearly entirely levelled to the ground by what must
have been a most terrific hurricane. On emerging
from it we came to an estan9ia called Roblez, where
we passed the night, being received with true Santia-
genan hospitality. There was a Frenchman staying
in the house, an engineer, who was engaged in con-
structing canals of irrigation for the sugar planta-
tions near Santiago. He was in possession of a
Paris paper three months old, which we devoured
eagerly.
April \st — This morning we rode down to the ford
on the Rio Dulce, which was but a few leagues
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2 /S The Cruise of the Falcon.
distant. We found the river in high flood. It here
flowed betwen sandy shores sloping up to a dense
jungle, and was of considerable breadth. There were
some men willing to swim our horses across, perilous
work in this crescente^ for heavy trees floated down
rapidly on the turbid water. These men drove the
horses into the stream nearly a mile above the spot
they proposed landing at on the other side, so strong
was the current. We in the rough chata accomplished
the voyage in the same manner. When we reached
the other bank, we were landed on a quicksand.
Several Indians now commenced to run rapidly
backwards and forwards over this, and so soon
formed a fairly hard road for ourselves and horses.
This method of making a temporary solid path
across a quicksand is very effectual. In Africa they
first drive the oxen across a river, that the sands
may so become sufficiently hard to allow the heavy
waggons to cross without danger of their sinking per-
manently into the treacherous bottom.
When we were beyond the river we beheld, as
about a league off*, the ancient city of Santiago del
Estero. The gleaming dome of the old cathedral
dominated all, contrasting strangely by its size, and
the wealth lavished on its construction, with the
barbarism and poverty of the broad province it
looked down upon.
We were now entering a new country. As we
approached the city the untilled wilderness vanished,
canals of irrigation flowed sluggishly on either side
of the road — for there was a road — and all round us,
with a rustling and a crackling sound, waved great
plantations of sugar-canes ; we were in the tropic
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 279
north again, with a sudden burst, as it were. No
longer were around us the parched montes and
Salinas, but a damp, rainy, steaming land, covered
with a rank vegetation, the unhealthy tepid tropics of
Central South America.
We rode into the city, a largish town, but thoroughly
Argentine ; there are but few gringos here ; a mean
place, so mean that there is not even a tramway in it,
and no South American city can even pretend to be
respectable without that. The miserable houses are
of mud, brick being the exception. Paving there is
none to speak of. The streets are of soft black mud.
A disreputable, dishevelled-looking sort of a capital,
whose inhabitants have a large proportion of Indian
blood in their veins, the indolent, useless Indian blood,
that is the curse of this Republic.
As we rode in we saw the children, mahogany-
coloured, with bright dark eyes, and straight black
hair, wallowing naked in the rich mud of the streets.
There was a wild, barbaric look about the dirty city
and its inhabitants that struck us much. We rode
to the one hotel, the ** H6tel de Paris," a new institu-
tion. Of old the traveller had to throw himself on
the hospitality of the inhabitants or camp outside.
A native keeps this — the first native hotel that we
had experienced in this Republic ; may it be the last !
The landlord was a haughty aristocrat, who would
not condescend to look after the comfort of his guests
in the least, but stalked like a monarch through
his palace, eyeing his guests as if they were so many
intruders on his peace.
The hotel was a strange old place, and not wanting
in magnificence ; the house once of some governor or
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28o The Cruise of the Falcon.
great man, a tyrant Taboada maybe. The patio
was large, with a beautiful columned gallery around
it, delicately-painted, but now crumbling to pieces
from neglect. There was something of the ruined
Moorish palace in the look of the whole building.
There was a large courtyard behind the patio, in the
centre of which was a huge wooden structure like a
hencoop. This was the cock-pit, with its tiers of
seats.
We were divided into different bedrooms over-
looking the patio — large rooms with gaudy draperies
on the walls, now hanging in mildewed shreds, but
betraying former grandeur and ostentation of wealth.
I was quartered with another traveller, a Bolivian,
who was driving cattle south, but was here laid up
half-way with a very bad attack of chuchu, or inter-
mittent fever ; not a pleasant companion, for he
groaned awfully when the shivering fit came on him.
He told me he was taking eighty grains of sulphate
of quinine a day, which is a largish dose, but not un-
frequently ordered here by the doctors.
'Y\i^ plaza of Santiago is fine in its way, and sur-
rounded by rather imposing public buildings. A
white-plastered column, commemorative of Liberty
or somebody else, is in the centre of it, of course
tumbling to pieces, for here, as in China, dilapidation
is but rarely repaired.
The day of our arrival the municipality had awoke
to a spasmodic fit of cleaning up : some gaucho pri-
soners, guarded by stunted, dirty, half-breed soldiers,
were (smoking the while) hoeing up the grass which
had been allowed to rankly overgrow all the flags of
the desolate Plaza, wherein no human being ever
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 28 1
seemed to walk, fine promenade though it would
make.
The street sights of Santiago are of the country —
china girls, wild and half-naked, ride cross-legged on
mules laden with alfalfa for sale. Sandaled gauchos
loaf about solemnly and noiselessly. At intervals in
the gloomy streets are stores where cheap Brummagen
and Manchester goods, gaudy, and of bad quality, are
exposed to view. With the exception of these last,
the houses are like prisons, with grated windows
admitting but a feeble light from the street. Outside
some of the best of these dungeons, white high-caste
ladies, bonnetless, with their two raven tails hanging
to their waists, and in dainty high-heeled shoes, sit
on chairs in the street, chatting, fanning, drinking
mat4 and smoking cigarettes, in a very free and easy
manner. These are the noblest of the land, wives
and daughters of deputies and generals — and in this
fashion do the dite of Santiago take the air. It is a
very out-of-door life that of this people ; and,
indeed, the habitations are not such as would tempt
one to stay indoors much — an out-of-door life, but
not a French out-of-door life — there are no bril-
liant cafh here, no splendid shops, no fldneurs.
The citizens have no cheerful promenades, so
stand and sit — a melancholy-looking race — outside
their prison-like houses, like so many prisoners out
for an airing.
We returned to our hotel to dinner — a casual
establishment. Truly the native here considers that
time was made for slaves alone. At the bar we
asked the dreamy, half-bred waiter for a vermouth
each, and some water. After some pondering he
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282 The Cruise of the Falcon.
produced the vermouth, and left us for fifty minutes
before he returned with a tumbler of water.
The table-d'hdte dinner was two hours late.
*• Como ! senor, the cook is taking a walk." This
was offered to us as quite a reasonable excuse, and
the native diners seemed to look upon this delay
quite as a matter of course. There was one person
at the table who expressed impatience — we looked
sympathizingly towards him — this man must be a
fellow-gringo we opined. It was so ; he was a Swiss
sugar-planter, and an agreeable man. He told us
that sugar-planting, a new industry here, was very
profitable. Labour in Santiago was cheaper than in
Tucuman, the peons being paid only one shilling and
sixpence a day, finding their own food and lodg-
ing. Again, fuel was plentiful here, and cost but the
cutting, for virgin montes and forests came up to the
edge of nearly every plantation. The soil, too, was
of excessive richness ; the sugar-cane, that most im-
poverishing plant, not having as yet had time to
exhaust the land, as is the case in Tucuman.
When I retired to my palatial bedroom to rest, I
found that my companion with the chuchu was
shaking the very walls with his fever-fit, shivering
and groaning under a mountain of native blankets,
his saddlery being piled above all. A sudden gust
from the patio extinguished my candle, so I shouted
to the waiter for a light. After much delay he
appeared, shuffling along with his bare feet ; sleepily
and calmly he sat down in a chair, and asked me with
a patient drone if I wanted anything. He seemed
to be mildly surprised at my impatience, and doubt-
lessly pitied this poor foreign white man, who so
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 283
valued time, which was so cheap a commodity to
him. After another very long delay he reappeared
with an unlit tallow dip ; this he placed on the table,
and asked me for a match. I had none. He went
out again — another long delay. On his return he
deliberately rolled himself a cigarette, sat down again
on the chair, struck a match, and lit up. He pulled
a few puffs, became wrapped in contemplation of the
burning match which he held in his hand, and not
till the flame reached his fingers did he start, suddenly
recollect himself, and condescend to light the candle.
Then he sat down once more, rolled another cigarette,
and politely offered it to me with his own to light it
by. What could one say to a fellow like this ? and
such is the cool manner of the dignified and polite
half-bred waiter throughout this free country.
A wonderful place in every way was this palatial
ruin of a Santiagan hotel — a dreamy, casual, laissez-
faire Castle of Indolence, where host, waiter, cook,
and all, seemed to consider cigarette-smoking as the
one duty of life, and in that they did indeed exhibit
industry unbounded, never leaving an opportunity
neglected.
There is no luxury in the life of this city ; it is the
life of the camps carried into the town : the per-
petual asado and puchero for dinner — very nice by
the camp fire, but one expects something else in a
capital of a huge province.
At this grand hostelry your boots will not be
blacked, you must look after your horses yourself,
carry your own baggage in when you arrive, pile
your saddlery, &c., up in your bedroom, in short, do
everything yourself. What in some lands would be
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284 The Cruise of the Falcon.
considered a menial work, a gentleman here performs
for himself. How different from Brazil with its slave
system; there the white man will do nothing — ^will
hail a slave at the other end of the house to hand his
glass to him, or his pipe, though it be on the table
within reach of his arm without rising — a system
degrading to slave and lord alike.
As is usual in this Republic, even- in far more im-
portant cities than this, our bedrooms in this caravan--
serai were windowless and chimneyless, so that the
doors had to be left open on the patio all night to
ensure a sufficiency of ventilation. It is strange that
hotel robberies are not more frequent in Buenos Ayres
than they are, as the facilities for them are great. Those
timid British tourists who lock their doors so carefully,
and before starting for a continental tour provide
themselves with all manner of patent door-jammers,
would in this land either perish of suffocation, or
waste away with nights of dreadful suspense.
We, anyhow, were not much troubled with such
anxieties; we enjoyed this night the unaccustomed
luxury of sheets and pillows, and were able to
take off our clothes. Under such sleep-compelling
circumstances, even the groans of my poor fever-
stricken companion, in his bed by mine, could not
keep me awake.
From here to Tucuman is a three-days' easy journey
on horseback by the usual route, but on account of
the flooded condition of the Rio Dulce, which we had
yet once more to cross, we were recommended to
make a cUtour^ and follow its banks to a point some
fourteen leagues from here.
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 285
CHAPTER XVII.
April ird. — Having enjoyed a day and a half's
rest in the not very interesting capital of the province
of the desert, we rode off at daybreak on the 3rd of
April. We went through the town in our usual
picturesque procession, with the baggage-animal
trotting on ahead, with kettle and asador swinging
under his neck rattling merry music ; and the sack
on his back well full of sugar, mat^, biscuit, and beef,
a four-days' store, for as we were not following the
regular route, who could tell how far we might have
to travel ere finding a place where we could re-
victual }
We rode all day ; first through the canalized sugar-
plantations in the neighbourhood of the town, then
across a wilderness of trees and flowers. The deadly
chuchu plant was plentiful at our feet, so, too, thick-
growing white poppies and variegated tulips. We'
followed the river, generally about a mile from it, a
dense jungle intervening. At midday we halted to
feed in a small pueblo, where a laguna provided us
with tepid muddy water, but there was nada mas to
be got in this place in the way of provisions, as
Manuel, after diligent inquiry, informed us, not even
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286 The Cruise of the Falcon,
cana or gin ! What a barbarous country ! Far,
indeed, from civilization must be the spot where fire-
water cannot be procured. Then we went on again
across the plain, steaming and dank with its rich
black loam — how different from the dry south. The
atmosphere was that of a vapour-bath ; it was late
autumn, and the rank vegetation was rotting all
around us, unhealthy and leprous-looking, We
understood now how it was that this country was
famed for its pestilential chuchu, being a prolific
mother of fevers, while the Pampas and the arid
montes further south are quite healthy, where, as in
the Sahara of Africa, hunger and thirst and old age
are the only diseases known.
It demonstrates how little the natives here know
of their own country, to say that we found that the
chata, or ferry-boat, fourteen leagues off, the people of
Santiago had told us of and recommended, was not
in existence, and had not been so for nearly ten
years. So after riding all day, we found that we had
to follow the bend of the river still further to the
south-west out of our direction, in order to find some
o\h.^x paso. About an hour after dusk we came upon
a house by the river bank, standing alone in the
wilderness. The whole family was sitting outside
mate-drinking — a patriarchal-looking tribe. The head
was a stalwart, hale old man, straight as an arrow,
in gaucho dress, shod with colt's feet, and belted with
many dollars, wuth a head that might have belonged
to Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. He had several sons
round him, one, a youth of about fifty, was married,
had married daughters, and was already a grandfather ;
thus our host was a great-grandfather; but, to our
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 287
surprise huddled up within the rancho was another
very aged man, with long white hair and beard, and
blind, with his palsied head wrapped up in a white
cloth. This was our host's father, the venerable
ancestor of all the little colony, the great-great-
grandfather of the little babe there at his handsome
mother's breast. This old gentleman lived in a
world of his own, in a time about three-quarters of a
century back at least. He would talk to no one,
ignored his descendants and all present things
altogether, and was wont, so our host told us, to tie
himself in a knot there in the corner, and shiver and
moan on day by day, with eyes that, though blinded,
had yet a far-off look, and mumble to himself all
sorts of ancient memories. He would talk often of
the king of Spain, whom he evidently considered
still ruled half the New World, and of many events
of long-past history that his grandsons had not even
heard of.
This was a handsome family, from the old Con-
quistador, as we called the ancient, downwards ; there
was no taint of the Indian blood in them. And so
the happy and peaceful life of this little community
of five generations of men flows on its even way in
this remote waste, with only the season of the marking
of cattle and such-like rural excitements to vary its
uneventful calm ; for out here even the outermost
wave of the revolutions of the cities is unfelt, and
those lawless bands of armed men that fatten on
pronunciamenta, robbing men and violating women,
do not extend their raids thus far.
There is, at any rate, one virtue which shines out
very strong in this South American race, as it does
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288 The Cruise of the Falcon.
to some extent among all the Latin races, and but
feebly, it must be confessed, in our own. Family affec-
tion, filial duty — these ties are kept up here through
life ; the prodigal son will be received with joy and
tlie fatted calf, without word of reproach, even be his
hands red with murder. No one can fail to notice
the exceeding indulgence of parents for their children
in this land ; our habit of bidding our fledged birds
fly off and look after themselves is not understood at
all here, perhaps it would be better for the race if it
were.
At night the preparations for rest were made in a
way that would surprise an English farmer. Although
the night air was cool, almost cold, our host bid his
sons bring out the beds. Three catres were then
arranged in a row outside the house, which, emptied
of every one, was locked up for the night. The
patriarch turned into one catre^ the host and his wife
into another, the damsels into the third, while the
men, the children, and ourselves, camped out along-
side in our blankets. This curious habit of locking
up the house and turning out for the night is common
in these northern provinces ; even in chilly weather
the native prefers to sleep under the stars to with-
in doors, lulled into slumber, as we were to-night,
by the lowing of cattle, the hum of cicala^, the cry of
wild beasts, and other manifold sounds of the forest
and the wilderness, not to forget the snores of patri-
archs, for the great-great-grandfather raised a nasal
trumpeting this night that drowned that of all his
five generations of descendants, his oxen, and the
strangers within his gates put together.
April ^th. — When we had ridden but a few miles
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 289
this day, we perceived that ahead of us the monte,
for leagues, as far as the eye could see, was of a red
colour, like that of burnt bricks. Earth, tree, and
bush had all assumed the same curious hue, the effect
being something like that of early winter on some of
the vegetation of northern Europe. We could not
at first conjecture what the strange appearance
signified — it was as if some pestilential blast had
withered up all the life of the land ? On approaching,
we found this to be a vast multitude of locusts, that
were settled so thickly on everything that no twig
or leaf, or inch of bare earth was left visible.
There was nothing to be seen anywhere under the
sky but the mahogany-coloured bodies of these
fearful creatures, they covered all. They had nearly
finished up this district. As we rode through them
they rose from under our feet in thousands, with a
multitudinous crackling sound as of a huge bonfire,
and then, when we had passed, settled down again,
but having revealed in their short flight the devasta-
tion they had wrought ; little but bare barkless stalks
were left of tree and bush, even the grass had been
devoured down to the ground.
After riding over several miles of locusts, we
reached a hut by the river, where were two men, who
made their livelihood by burning charcoal and ferry-
ing stray passengers across the stream. For this
purpose they had constructed what they rather boldly
called a boat. Imagine two rough logs, about three
or four feet long, lashed together with hide thongs in
the shape of a V, then a plank nailed on top of these,
so converting the V into an A ; here you have the
boat. The apex of the A was of course the bow of
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290 The Cruise of the Falcon.
the vessel. Only one passenger could be carried at a
time on this rickety craft, and he had to balance him-
self gingerly, as he squatted down on the transverse
plank, and held on to the two logs.
One by one we were ferried across. The Charon
would launch the boat each time with its nervous occu-
pant looking exceedingly ridiculous, and then swim
behind it, pushing it on with his hands, so steering it
diagonally across the current, till ultimately he beached
it on the opposite bank. The river was much swollen,
very rapid, nearly 300 yards wide, and big trees kept
floating down, often threatening to collide with the
little raft, thus there was no small element of danger
in this passage. No accident occurred, however. We
were all safely landed, and then the men .proceeded
to swim our horses across.
We had not ridden half a mile beyond this when a
strange sound was heard suddenly, coming from all
round us, a sound low and ominous, terrible to the
husbandman ; it was the noise of the wings of myriads
of locusts. The word had been given forth by the
captain, and, with one consent, in a moment the vast
army rose up with the sun after their night's feed, as
is their custom, to renew their journey of devastation.
The light was obscured by the number of them, and
the sky was reddened. We rode through several
leagues of them, all bound in a contrary direction to
ourselves, so we had to meet them in the face, a
most unpleasant sensation. Our horses evidently had
the strongest objection to riding against these dense
living showers, that pelted against us without inter-
mission.
We passed a rancho, by which was a small plot of
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 291
maize. The family were all out, endeavouring to drive
off the invaders with branches of trees and shouting,
but in vain, for they crowded on over their dead, and
would not be repulsed or checked by any slaughter ;
so the poor people stood in despair, and hung down
their hands, as they beheld the speedy ruin of their
little farm.
By midday we reached a deserted rancho. In its
ruined corral was a well, from which we managed to
draw out some rotten water, but we saw that there
were so many dead and swollen snakes and other
beasts in the well, that we dared not drink, fearfully
thirsty though we were, for the day was very hot.
Neither could . we find pasture for our horses.
Between Santiago to Tucuman the stages were long,
and we were unable anywhere to procure algarroba or
other hard food, so our animals had a very hard time
of it.
Rather late this night, very thirsty, we reached a
farm that is called Chourki ; here there was water
and some pasture, so we rested by it for the night. We
camped out under a carob-tree in front of the house,
together with the farmer, his family, some tame
ostriches, and a little flock of goats.
We returned his hospitality by doctoring a horse
of his that had been frightfully clawed in the back
by a puma. He told us that his place was in the
province of Tucuman, so we must have crossed the
frontier some time this day.
April ^th, — ^This was our last day's ride, and brought
us to the city of Tucuman, which is about fifty miles
distant from the farm of Chourki. We saw ahead of
us a range of giant mountains looming, these were
U 2
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292 The Cruise of the Falcon.
the Andes of Tucuman, the Sierras of Aconquija;
whose highest summit is I7,cxx) feet above the level
of the Pacific Ocean. After riding some leagues we
reached an extensive swamp, of the perils of which we
had heard some exaggerated accounts ; we had been
told that it might easily befall us to lose a horse
or two while traversing it.
We found it to consist of treacherous soft black
mud^ in some places covered with water, in others
with bright green grass, forming a quaking crust over
the morass; canes and other swamp-loving shrubs,
six feet high and more, grew all over it, rendering
progress slow and difficult. A nasty, unhealthy place,
a nest of chuchu, where only mosquitoes could resist
the poisons of the malarious atmosphere, for under
the hot sun the black mud was rotting and fermenting
and stinking, breathing forth pernicious fevers. Once
beyond it we reached Naranquita, a pueblo consisting
of a store, a few ranchos, and a sugar factory with its
lofty chimney; a sugar plantation surrounded the
village, and a grove of oranges. It was an unhealthy
spot that should be left to the mosquitoes that infest
it. Nearly every one in the place seemed to be pro-
strated with the fever more or less, and those who
were not suffering then, were sallow, emaciated, and
haggard from old attacks of it. We rode on towards
the big mountains until late in the afternoon, when
we perceived signs that we were nearing an important
city. In the first place, the foot-track broadened into
a road, and on either side of us were great plantations
of sugar-cane, with deep canals and hedges of prickly
pear dividing them one from the other. Large orange-
groves, too, were frequent. Above all towered huge
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 293
sugar factories, by which were the mud ranches of
the peons, grouped in little villages ; by the roadside
were canteens for the use of the men employed on
the plantations, presided over by Indian women.
On reaching an eminence, we saw before us a long
straight road, and at the end of it a fair city with
glittering domes and snowy-white houses, backed by
the distant Sierras, rising range behind range into
the clouds. Between us and the town was a rapid
shallow river, the Rio Tati, a branch of our old friend
the Rio Dulce. Here we found a long wooden bridge
of considerable height, so as to be above the level of
the frequent floods. This bridge is peculiar in its
way ; its architect certainly has hit upon the most
original idea in the way of bridges possible, in so
much as this ambitious and solid structure, after
starting from the level of the lofty barranca^ crosses
the lower plain for several hundred yards, and then
suddenly stops short, just where your common every-
day bridge generally begins — at the bank of the river,
at the water's edge ! We rode along without ob-
serving this at first, and were loudly praising the
high state of civilization of the country we had now
reached, where the rivers were spanned by bridges,
and were congratulating ourselves on a passage dry-
shod, when we were surprised to find the wooden
roadway slope suddenly down to the water, leaving
us to ford the stream saddle-deep.
Once beyond the foaming Tati, we ascended the
steep street to the centre of the town. As we clat-
tered along over the rough paving-stones, tired and
dusty, our first impressions of the capital of the gar-
den of South America were agreeable enough. This
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294 ^'^ Cruise of the Falcon.
was owing to the smiles with which the fair Tucu-
manas welcomed us into their city. It was now the
hour when the ladies come out and exhibit their
charms in the public places; loviely and vivacious
seemed these white beauties to us after the very plain
Indian females we had travelled among lately. Dark-
eyed girls, in mantillas, were fanning themselves on
verandah and in street A hopeless love for them
all must have been expressed on our swarthy features,
for I noticed that the little coquettes tittered meiyily
behind their fans as we passed, evidently taking cruel
delight in wounding so severely our susceptible gringo
hearts.
All South America vaunts the beauty of the women
of Tucuman — South America shows good taste.
We rode across the Plaza, with its fine public
buildings. A double row of orange-trees borders
the promenade round it; these, now covered with
ripe fruit, yet no railing protects them. Imagine
the London gamin, left to himself on the Thames
Embankment, were it thus lined ; but the Tucuman
street Arab heeds not the ripe golden fruit — it is not
worth his while to steal it in this land of plenty.
Now we enjoyed a spell of luxury for a space, and
surrendered ourselves to a gentle life ; for in this city,
among others, is a hostelry yclept the " Hotel de
Paris," kept by one M. Doucet, a Frenchman ; and
surely this is saying enough to indicate that it cannot
but be an oasis of gastronomic comfort in this mono-
tonous land of puchero and asado. This was a very
Capua for us ; our host was erst of the " CafS de
Paris " at Rosario, an establishment frequented by
the Anglo-Saxon, so he knew how deftly to mix the
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The Cruise of the Falcon, 295
insinuating cocktail and the matutinal egg-nog. Con-
tact with the white man had also civilized the native
waiters of the hotel.
There was one, a fresh hand, but an intelligent,
who had found time already to study and commit to
memory many of the principal habits of the white
man. N.B. — By white man, of course, is signified
Englishman, to the exclusion of niggers, Spaniards,
and all foreigners whatever ; this is the common and
proper definition of the term. I rung my bell for
something or other the day after our arrival ; this
particular waiter promptly turned up, and before I '
had time to say a word, the varlet jerked out, — '
" Cognac con soda, senor ? "
"No," I replied with virtuous indignation, for I
flatter myself that there is nothing in my personal
appearance, no nasal flush or grogginess of eye that
betokens habitual morning dryness. " No, why do
you ask me that } "
"Ah, senor," he said with a childlike smile,
" there have been several English here, and whenever
they rung the bell they asked for a brandy and
soda."
Such are the pitfalls that the rash inductive logi-
cian is apt to fall into, I meditated ; this knave has
formed this hasty generalization as to the habits of
all my countrymen from the eccentric and vile prac-
tice 'of a few individuals, and thus unjustly . . . . " But
stop," this aloud, " on second thoughts I think I will
have a brandy and soda, waiter, if Senor Jerdein will
join me." After all, the poor fellow had been doing
his best to formulate into laws the mysterious Anglo-
Saxon nature. It might confuse his intellect, cause
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296 The Cruise of tJie Falcon.
him to despair, and renounce his laudable design,
were we thus at these early stages of his study to
place before him glaring exceptions to what he con-
sidered to be the most elementary and general rules
of Anglo-Saxonology.
We had now to dispose of our faithful horses, and
entrusted Manuel to sell them for us. He took up
his abode under a cart in the stable-yard, and there
received the would-be purchasers of our steeds. There
were some sharp fellows, who tried * hard to do our
worthy follower ; but he was on his mettle, and, with
his bland and simple smile, was quite up to these
Tucumans, who fancied their own cuteness, and
imagined themselves much more knowing than a
Cordoban. We stayed at Tucuman some days, and
visited the neighbouring country.
In a translation of a work by President Sarmiento,
I read the following florid description of these re-
gions: — "Tucuman is a tropical country where nature
has displayed its greatest pomp ; it is the Eden of
America, and without a rival on the face of the earth.
Primeval forests cover the surface, and unto the
gorgeousness of India unite the beauty of Greece ;
the walnut interlaces its long branches with the
mahogany and ebony ; the cedar and the classic
laurel grow side by side, and beneath them the myrtle,
consecrated to Venus, finds a place. The old trunks
are covered with various species of flowering mosses,
and the bind-weed and other vines festoon and en-
twine all these different trees. Over all this vegeta-
tion, which defies the brush of fancy in combination
and richness of colouring, fly myriads of golden
butterflies, brilliant humming-birds, green parrots,
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 297
blue magpies, and orange-coloured toucans. . . The
city of Tucuman is surrounded for many leagues by
a forest of orange-trees, rounded to about the same
height, so as to form a vast canopy supported by
millions of smooth columns. The rays of the torrid
sun have never shone upon the scenes which are
enacted under this immense roof. The young girls
of Tucuman pass the Sundays there, each group
choosing a convenient place. According to the sea-
son, they gather fruit or scatter blossoms under the
feet of the dancers, who are intoxicated with the rich
perfume, and the melodious sounds of the guitar. I
cannot half describe the voluptuous beauty of these
damsels, daughters of the tropics, as they recline for
their siesta beneath the shade of the myrtles and the
laurels, enjoying such odours as would asphyxiate
one unaccustomed to the atmosphere/*
Alas ! we had evidently arrived here at the wrong
time of the year to enjoy all these charming sights,
and sounds, and smells, for it was now the rainy
season, no make-believe one in this province. A per-
petual pall of inky cloud obscured the skies, the rain
fell continually, beneath our feet in street or orange-
grove was stinking, deep, black mud, suggestive of
fever and rheumatism rather than of dalliance in
tropical woods with voluptuous damsels. We found
that expeditions into the country and the Cordilleras
were just now provocative rather of bad temper and
grumbling than of enthusiastic admiration of the
glorious nature around us. When we were taken out
to do anything, we would not admire it at all —
nothing was wonderful in our eyes ; the plain of Tucu-
man was but " an unweeded garden " to us, and the
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298 The Cruise of the Falcon,
Andes detestable nuisances ; such is the effect of
weather on the travelling mind.
One day our host took us out for a drive round
the neighbouring sugar factories in a tumble- down,
vermiUion vehicle drawn by no less than six horses,
with two outriders on the leaders, dirty, bare-legged,
half-breeds, each armed with a tremendous whip.
The several portions of the carriage, the driver, the
outriders, the horses, were all lashed together firmly
with strips of raw hide, so as ta obviate all chance
of disintegration on the way.
In this bone-jolter we were carried along some
terrible roads ; for so civilized is this province that
roads actually exist between the several plantations,
but they are not of a high class, our six horses could
scarcely drag us through them. Tall sugar-canes
waved on either side of us, a ditch and then a cactus
fence in all cases dividing them from the road,
which was but a space left between two plantations,
unmacadamized, and untended in any way, its natural
swampiness being increased by a remarkably intelli-
gent custom. The mud that is dug out in the con-
struction and constant dredging of the ditches is piled
up on the sides of the road, forming two banks, sloping
down towards its centre. Thus the highway, instead
of being slightly convex, as with us, and draining
into the canals, was concave, and very much so ; in-
deed, all that can be said in its favour is that, though
a very inferior road, it would make a passable ditch.
We were ever and anon getting into some more fear-
ful slough than usual, when our coach would refuse
to advance, and commence to sink gradually into the
bowels of the earth, until the long whips and the tall
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The Cruise of the Falcon. 299
language of our Jehu and outriders stung the horses
into supernatural efforts, and they tore us out. We
visited several large factories, all provided with ex-
pensive machinery from England, and the processes
of sugar and rum-making were explained to us. We
tasted several samples of cana. One was a 44 cana,
not an a.d. 44, or a 44 shillings a dozen, but a 44 above
proof —fire-water, with a vengeance, calculated to make
even a Quilp cough.
We entered into a very fierce and learned discussion
on the way home regarding the respective advantages
and disadvantages of coolie labour, as in Demerara ;
free nigger labour, as in the West Indies ; slave nigger
labour, as in Brazil ; and free Indian and half-
breed labour, as here, on sugar plantations. We
were admirably fitted for settling this mooted ques-
tion, as we had in the course of our travels enjoyed
opportunities for studying each kind for at least a
day ! We brought a new pet for the Falcon back with
us in the carriage, no less than a young lion, a six-
month old puma, that we purchased on the way from
an Indian for five shillings ; playful as a kitten, about
the size of a Newfoundland dog, and with a purr as
of a trombone.
We enjoyed ourselves much in Tucuman, and
actually learnt a new vice, one that is much indulged
in throughout the north-west provinces of the Argen-
tine Republic — coca-leaf chewing. We have heard a
good deal about this drug in England lately, and one
of our professional walkers is said to have kept up
his strength by its use during a recent sensational
walk. The following is what I learnt concerning it
in this, the land of its use and abuse. The Indians of
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300 The Cruise of the Falcon.
Bolivia discovered the properties of coca ; they either
chew the leaf or drink an infusion of it, and their
white conquerors have acquired the vice from them.
That it does possess the wonderful sustaining powers
attributed to it is certain. When an Indian under-
takes a long journey on foot he takes with him a
little bag of these leaves, and as he goes perpetually
chews them and swallows their bitter juice. He will
traverse many hundreds of miles of country thus,
without taking any other sustenance or requiring
rest ; but when the gigantic effort is over, he lies
down on the ground utterly prostrated, and so re-
mains without moving for days, until he has slept off
the wearisome and terrible reaction of the drug.
From what I heard from intelligent men here, possess-
ing some medical knowledge, it seems that, taken in
moderation, it is a stomachic, and has really useful
sustaining powers — would not be a bad substitute for
tea or coffee, and is probably better than these. But
those who exceed in the use of coca experience the
most disastrous results ; the intemperate enjoyer of
the drug becomes apathetic, an utterly useless wretch,
impotent in mind and body ; his energy dies, his
digestive organs become seriously impaired, the worst
symptoms of dyspepsia are induced, and helpless
idiotcy not unfrequently occurs. Mr. Ledger, of
Tucuman, the discoverer of that most useful species
of quinine-tree that bears his name, the Cinchona
Ledgeriana, told me that in his opinion the injurious
result of excess in coca are more rapidly brought
on, and are more terrible in consequence, than those
attributed to excess in any other drug — opium and
Indian hemp included.
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The Cruise of tfie Falcon. 301
I purchased a pound of coca-leaf at a chemist's
(every chemist here sells the drug) for four shillings,
and started chewing vigorously, to see what effect it
produced. I certainly took a large quantity of it,
but experienced no appreciable symptoms whatever ;
perhaps it only affects the simple-living Indian, and
cannot touch the gringo.
END OF VOL. I.
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